Life
1962-; b. Bangor, Co. Down; ed. Bangor Grammar School; joined County Down Spectator, 1979; received Journalist’s Fellowship to Oxford University for reports from Uganda, 1990; satirical columnist and winner Northern Ireland Press Award; worked as deputy-ed. to 1996; issued Divorcing
Jack (1994), a comic novel burlesquing Northern Irish terrorism and
featuring Dan Starkey, a non-loyalist Protestant journalist in Northern
Ireland and succcesfully filmed in 1998; winner of Betty Trask award, 1994;
also Cycle of Violence (1995), a thriller set in ‘Crosssmaheart’
and centring on the rape of a 13-year old girl which triggers a cycle
of paramilitary killings and suicides; also Turbulent Priests (q.d.)
and Shooting Sean (2001); Of Wee Sweet, Mice and Men (1996),
deals with the career of a hopeless heavyweight boxer in New York;
Empire State (1997), in which an Irish emigrant become a keeper
at the building, kidnaps the President, combats racism, and ends up a
hero; Wild Harry (2001), and screenplay of same; issued Shooting
Sean (2001), again with Sharkey, is set in Belfast, Dublin, Amsterdam
and Cannes; issued Mohammed Maguire (2001); issues Chapter and
Verse (2003); Driving Big Dave (2004), another Dan Starkey story, set in S. Florida; now lives at Ratoath, Co. Meath and after at Blanchardstown,
Co. Dublin.
[ top ]
Works
Fiction, Divorcing Jack (London: HarperCollins 1995), 288pp;
Cycle of Violence (London: HarperCollins 1995), 267pp; Of Wee
Sweetie, Mice and Men (London: HarperCollins 1996; rep. 2001), 333pp.;
Empire State (London: HarperCollins 1997), 352pp.; Wild About
Harry (London: HarperCollins 2001); Shooting Sean (London:
HarperCollins 2001), 256pp.; Mohammed Maguire (London: HarperCollins
2001), 236pp.; Chapter and Verse (London: Headline 2003), 352pp.; Driving Big Dave (London: Headline 2004), q.pp.
Screenplays, Divorcing Jack: Screenplay (HarperCollins 1998), 208pp.
[ top ]
Criticism
Deirdre Molloy, review article and interview, Fortnight (March
1996), pp.33-34 [infra]; Gerry Smyth, The Novel
and the Nation: Studies in the New Irish Fiction (London: Pluto Press
1997) [on Divorcing Jack], pp.123-25 [infra];
Ellen-Raïssa Jackson, ‘Gender, Violence and Hybridity: Reading
the Postcolonial in Three Irish Novels’, Irish Studies Review,
Vol. 7, No. 2 (August 1999), pp.221-31 [infra].
See also Fortnight, 308 (July-Aug. 1993).
Website: Hodder have a Bateman website which posts synopsis of titles but no publication dates [link].
[ top ]
Deirdre Molloy, interview article, Fortnight
(March 1996), pp.33-34
Gerry Smyth, The Novel and the Nation: Studies in the New Irish Fiction (London: Pluto Press 1997) [on Divorcing Jack]: , pp.123-25
Ellen-Raïssa Jackson, ‘Gender, Violence and Hybridity: Reading the Postcolonial in Three Irish Novels’, Irish Studies Review, 7, 2 (August 1999), pp.221-31
[ top ]
Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)