Rick O’Shea: My Belfast bookshop pilgrimage and the best new books from the North

No Alibis has the thing that makes books magically levitate into readers’ hands — really well-curated tables

Clockwise from left: Bernard MacLaverty, Michael Magee, Séamus O'Reilly and Louise Kennedy

Rick O'Shea

The first time I visited Belfast was on a freezing cold, snowy day at the tail end of 1990 when, as part of a pattern that I’ve made a career from, I decided to throw myself into something I was wildly underqualified for, fully in the belief that I might just be able do it.

I got a train North and waded through the slush, ending up in a freezing cold sports hall of hopefuls to audition for Channel 4’s daytime quiz hit Fifteen to One. I was 17.