Aoife Clifford

No, I wouldn't say haunt.

I loved it.

But I would have to say like Moby Dick is like my favourite classic of all time.

So, you know, give me a whaling boat and I am in 100%.

And I just thought particularly, I mean, it's a beautifully written book.

It is very, very violent.

It is very gory.

And normally I would not go for that.

Like I'm not a big Cormac McCarthy fan, which clearly –

I think Ian McGuire is.

But I loved The North Water and I just thought Henry Drax really is probably the best villain of kind of modern literature that I could think of.

He is a work of art as evil and as horrible and as black-hearted as he is, but I just thought he was fantastic.

So James O'Connor is an Irish policeman.

And during the course of the novel, we hear about his childhood, which has been a harsh one.

He finally falls in love with this lovely woman, has a child and they both die.

He takes to the drink and then as sort of this Manchester, he's his last chance to make something of himself.

It's his boss who knows his potential, has seen his troubles and refers him to Manchester police to try and pull himself together.

So he's recently come to the city.

It must be said that he's very reluctantly tolerated by his English colleagues.

But what they like about him is as an Irishman, he can travel into that local Irish community and get information.