IRISH GHOST, ENGLISH ACCENT is the story of a mother who has a diagnosis of severe paranoid schizophrenia, the daughter she is denied custody of and their mutual decision to go on the run together.
It’s the second novel from Graham Jones who last year wrote TRAVELLER WEDDING and who is also an award-winning Irish director responsible for independent movies like FUDGE 44 and HOW TO CHEAT IN THE LEAVING CERTIFICATE.
‘There’s something about mother-daughter relationships I find particularly interesting,’ Jones says. ‘A female has given birth to another female who one day will probably give birth herself. There’s a chance for incredible empathy. Yet such relationships are often fraught, squandered. I wanted to explore that.’
Yet IRISH GHOST, ENGLISH ACCENT is not only about motherhood.
‘I was also very interested in this label schizophrenia – how unsatisfactory a label it is – and certain ideas I have about that connected to the whole mother thing quite well, as did the whole Irish/English experience. The characters came very quickly. It was like once my research began Joanne and her mother were immediately standing beside me.’
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Variety Magazine describes Graham Jones as ‘a very talented director’.
He has helmed a number of independent feature films – HOW TO CHEAT IN THE LEAVING CERTIFICATE went on general release in his native Ireland, FUDGE 44 won trophies at events such as The Reelheart Film Festival Toronto, The Backseat Film Festival Philadelphia and now a completely animated horror movie is in the works.
Jones is the author of both printed and ebooks such as TALKING PICTURES, TRAVELLER WEDDING and IRISH GHOST, ENGLISH ACCENT.
He is also a painter whose work has appeared in Starfish Studios Dublin and Van’s Fine Art Belfast.