The Derry author on tackling Northern Ireland’s past in his debut novel – and the tweet that changed everything
Author Séamas O’Reilly. Photo: Mark Condren
Eight years ago, Séamas O’Reilly was sitting in an office cubicle in London, inputting numbers into spreadsheets for a recruitment company. “Really grim, really boring,” is how he describes the job.
It was coming up to lunchtime and the Derry native was scrolling online – something he spent too much of the company’s time doing – when he saw a tweet asking for people’s worst mess-ups at work.