The Last Resort & more

Dramatised readings from the award-winning Jan Carson, plus bonus interview with the author herself

Northern Irish writer Jan Carson won the EU Prize for Literature 2019 for her novel The Fire Starters, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2023. Her work has been translated into over 15 languages and appeared in numerous journals and on BBC Radio 3 and 4. Contained within this collection are a selection of Carson’s captivating monologues, performed by a wealth of accomplished TV and stage actors.

In Moving Mountains, a group of Ballymena locals rally together to try and save Slemish mountain, said to be where Saint Patrick had his first vision of God. Can they prevent it from being sold to a Japanese theme park? Jo Donnelly, Andrew McCracken, Ignacy Rybarczykn, Aoibhéann McCann and Michael McCondron narrate this serialised story, told from five different perspectives.

UnRaveling, read by Liam Neeson, sees a former world-class pianist, now beset by dementia, reaching for the rhythm of Ravel that his fingers have not forgotten.

Disappearance is at the heart of The Last Resort, ten linked tales themed around an uncanny clifftop caravan park plagued by impossible thefts. The narrators include Patrick Buchanan, Roísín Gallagher, Christopher Grant, Jo Donnelly, Ignacy Rybarczyk, Beccy Henderson, Seamus O’Hara, Carol Moore, Ian McElhinney and Dearbháile McKinney.

Specially commissioned for radio and read by Roísín Gallagher, Tara Lynne O’Neill, Lisa Dwyer Hogg and Seamus O’Hara, Egg and Beans revolve around mothers and children; In Loco Parentis features a woman determined to be the World’s Best Aunt; and Shadowing Gordon finds a writer discovering that exorcising ghosts isn’t nearly as easy as it looks. Rounding off our collection, we hear Jan Carson recalling her Presbyterian childhood in Another Northern Ireland: Traybakes, as she reveals what the ladies in the church kitchen taught her about community, creativity – and finding her own voice.

Production credits
Written by Jan Carson

Moving Mountains
Read by Jo Donnelly (The Lord Mayor), Andrew McCracken (Darren), Ignacy Rybarczyk (Tomasz), Aoibhéann McCann (Joss) and Michael Condron (Colin)
Produced by Michael Shannon
Edited by Andy Martin

UnRaveling
Bill – Liam Neeson

Produced by Justine Potter
Assistant Producer: Usman Mullan
Sound Designer and Editor: John Scott
Pianist: Lauryna Sableviciute

The Last Resort
Read by Patrick Buchanan (Pete), Roísín Gallagher (Lois), Christopher Grant (Richard), Jo Donnelly (Anna), Ignacy Rybarczyk (Vidas), Beccy Henderson (Alma), Seamus O’Hara (Malcolm), Carol Moore (Kathleen), Ian McElhinney (John), Dearbháile McKinney (Lynette)
Produced by Michael Shannon

Egg
Read by Roísín Gallagher
Produced by Michael Shannon

Beans
Read by Tara Lynne O’Neill
Produced by Michael Shannon

In Loco Parentis
Read by Lisa Dwyer Hogg
Produced by Michael Shannon
Executive Editor: Andy Martin

Shadowing Gordon
Read by Seamus O’Hara
Produced by Michael Shannon

VAM: Another Northern Ireland
With Jan Carson
Produced by Ophelia Byrne and Conor Garrett

‘A born storyteller’ The Guardian

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