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A Good Read: Chantal Joffe and S茅amas O'Reilly

Artist Chantal Joffe and writer S茅amas O'Reilly pick their favourite books with Harriett Gilbert, among which are an English classic, a graphic novel, and a tragic tale.

The artist Chantal Joffe picks I Capture The Castle, the English classic by Dodie Smith. Set in 1930s rural England, it relates the adventures of an eccentric family over the course of about a year. It's a book Chantal has come back to again and again, ever since she was a teenager. S茅amas O'Reilly champions the Irish novel, A Goat's Song by Dermot Healy, which he argues deserves to be more widely known. And Harriett Gilbert recommends a graphic memoir by the cartoonist Alison Bechdel, called The Secret to Superhuman Strength.

Chantal Joffe is an artist known for her often larger-than-life-sized paintings, of women and children in particular, which have been shown in solo exhibitions around the world. S茅amas O'Reilly is a columnist for the Observer whose memoir is Did Ye Hear Mammy Die.

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