Farewell Happy Fields

Adam Palmer, determined to defy God in revenge for his detention in an asylum, embarks on a personal quest to destroy his soul, inflicting small sustained acts of cruelty and violence on those around him. His long-suffering wife, Kathleen, struggles to maintain her self-respect in the face of her husband's gaslighting. Among the most elusive of Norah Hoult's works, Farewell Happy Fields was published in 1948 and, like many of her books, was promptly banned in Ireland. A dark comedy full of acerbic wit, it brings searing insight into a lost post-war generation of lower-middle-class women and men as they deal with shame, financial insecurity and emotional poverty. Back in print for the first time in decades, New Island is delighted to bring this startling modern Irish classic to a new generation of readers.

Born in Dublin in 1898, Norah Hoult was one of Ireland's most prolific and popular authors of the 20th century, and also one of the most censored in Ireland. Hoult published journalism, novels and short stories. Her first collection, Poor Women! was published in 1928, and Hoult wrote two further collections, Nine Years is a Long Time and Cocktail Bar. Her novels include Time, Gentlemen, Time!, Holy Ireland, Four Women Grow Up, The Last Days of Miss Jenkinson and There Were No Windows, which was reissued by Persephone Books in 2005. Hoult died in Greystones, Co. Wicklow in 1984.