Bruce Arnold OBE FRSL (born 6 September 1936) is an English journalist and author who has lived in Ireland since 1957.[1] His main expertise is in the fields of literary criticism and art criticism.[2]
In 1983 it emerged that his telephone had been bugged by Charles Haughey in the Irish phone tapping scandal. He and the other bugged journalists were considered to have "anti-national" views.
Early life
Arnold was educated at Kingham Hill School and at Trinity College, Dublin, where he studied modern languages. His wife Mavis Arnold (née Ysabel Mavis Cleave) was also a journalist.[3] Arnold's older brother Guy Arnold was also an author, largely on African politics.
Journalism
Arnold has worked for the main Irish newspapers based in Dublin – The Irish Times from 1965; The Irish Press and the Sunday Independent. He also acted as Dublin correspondent of The Guardian. He has edited Hibernia and the Dublin Magazine (1962–68; formerly The Dubliner).
Partial bibliography
Fiction
- A Singer at the Wedding (London: Hamish Hamilton 1978; rep. Abacus 1991);
- The Song of the Nightingale (London: Hamish Hamilton 1980; rep. Abacus 1991);
- The Muted Swan (London: Hamish Hamilton 1981; rep. Abacus 1991);
- Running to Paradise (London: Hamish Hamilton 1983; rep. Abacus 1991).
Non-fiction
- A Concise History of Irish Art (London: Thames & Hudson, 1969; also New York: Praeger 1968)
- Orpen: Mirror to an Age (London: Jonathan Cape, 1981)
- What Kind of Country? (London: Jonathan Cape, 1984)
- Margaret Thatcher: A Study in Power (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1984)
- An Art Atlas of Britain and Ireland (London: Penguin/Viking, 1991)
- Orpen: William Orpen 1878-1931 (Dublin: Town House, 1991) "Lives of Irish Artists" series
- The Scandal of Ulysses (London: Sinclair Stevenson 1991; New York: St. Martin's Press 1992; Dublin: Liffey 2005)
- Mainie Jellett and the Modern Movement in Ireland (London: Yale UP 1991; New York: Yale UP, 1992)
- Haughey: His Life and Unlucky Deeds (London: HarperCollins, 1993)
- Swift: An Illustrated Life (Dublin: Lilliput, 1999)
- The Spire and Other Essays on Modern Irish Culture (foreword by Charles Lysaght) (Dublin: Liffey Press 2003)
- He That Is Down Need Fear No Fall (Ashfield Press, 2008)
- The Fight for Democracy: The Libertas Voice in Europe (2009) (about the Libertas Institute)
- The Irish Gulag: How the State Betrayed its Innocent Children (2009) (published just before the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse report)
- Derek Hill (2010)
- The End of the Party with Jason O'Toole (Gill & MacMillan, 2011);
Film
- The Scandal of Ulysses; Images of Joyce
- To Make it Live: Mainie Jellett 1897–1944
Libretto
- A Passionate Man
Awards
He is an honorary Fellow of Trinity College Dublin, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature[4] and an honorary member of the Royal Hibernian Academy. He was awarded an honorary doctorate by University College Dublin (UCD) and an OBE.
References
- ^ "Princess Grace Irish Library notes". Archived 4 April 2009 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Arnold's speech about his interests, 1999". Archived 4 July 2008 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Doran 2005, p.3
- ^ "Bruce Arnold". Royal Society of Literature. Retrieved 6 December 2022.
Sources
- Arnold, Bruce (February 2003). "Bruce Arnold: The Spy Who Loves Us". The Dubliner. Archived from the original on 4 April 2009. Retrieved 11 March 2015.
- Doran, Antoinette (2005). "Papers of Bruce Arnold" (PDF). Collection List. National Library of Ireland. No. 114. Retrieved 11 March 2015.
