Donal McLaughlin: 'I've got that Derry voice in my head'

In this summer's new, expanded podcast we've already heard from Joyce Carol Oates, Fiona Mozley and José Falero – translated and interpreted by Maria Jacqueline Evans. This time we're heading north to catch up with Donal McLaughlin and his story runaway.

McLaughlin has been writing short stories about his main character, Liam O'Donnell, for thirty years. Both author and protagonist grew up in the heart of a large, Catholic family and moved from Northern Ireland to Scotland in the 1970s. And McLaughlin admits that runaway was sparked by a childhood memory of running away from home. But he denies his story is autobiographical, citing the title of Janice Galloway's 2008 memoir, This Is Not About Me.

He explains how adopting Liam's narrow perspective allows him to widen the story's reach, and how the voice he hears in his head needs more than standard spellings to sing on the page. Going back to Derry as a teenager, McLaughlin says he would marvel at the humour, colour and warmth of the conversations around him. And it's that energy he captures in his prose.

Next time we welcome Sabba Khan to talk about her story, At the Door.

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