The Star Factory - Softcover

'The Star Factory is a splendid read, packed with wonderful reminiscences of old Belfast ... It is highly recommended' Sunday Times.

'In The Star Factory Carson is still playing Soldiers and Rebels, he is still a boy listening to his father's stories ... The best parts of the book are those in which he gives himself over to nostalgia, evokes the smell of his father's postman's bag, his voice, the cigarettes, his coming home after all those rounds, those deliveries' London Review of Books.

'The playful, enchanting contiguities of Irish poet Carson's memoir (which is as much a portrait of the city of Belfast as it is of one of its denizens) are just as skilled as those in Nabokov's standard, Speak, Memory, and are even somewhat bolder ... Among the flood of Irish memoirs these days, none are as dazzlingly written as this, and none remain so solidly entrenched in the sovereign space of the imagination' Publishers Weekly.

'A whimsical, witty romp through the streets of Belfast ... While the tone of most of the book is lighthearted (as when Carson reveals to us the titles of the books he keeps in his privy), there are also more serious undertones of violence and the IRA – mentioned only occasionally and always in passing when referring to some local landmark. Violence for Carson is just one part of the Belfast landscape – not to be dwelt upon, but not to be ignored. Carson's imaginary 'star factory' – a place where words were melted down and like tallow cast into new molds – is freshly realized here. Beautifully written, with deep humor and a strong evocation of a very personal Belfast' Kirkus.