The Anti Room

Rosita Sweetman is a writer and journalist. She has published three books, On Our Knees, a look at Ireland in the 1970s, Fathers Come First, a novel, and On Our Backs, a look at sexual attitudes in 1980s Ireland. Rosita’s daughter, Chupi Sweetman-Pell, is a food writer and fashion designer, author of What to Eat [...]

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Polystyrene was just a teenager when she became the singer in punk band X-Ray Spex. In 1977, they released their classic single ‘Oh Bondage Up Yours!’ and played on the same bill as bands like The Buzzcocks and Wire.  After struggles with her mental health, Poly opted out of music. She has spent the last [...]

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Welsh writer and playwright Rachel Trezise is the author of ‘Fresh Apples’, the inaugural Dylan Thomas prize winner 2005, ‘In and Out of the Goldfish Bowl’, and ‘Dial M for Merthyr’. Her first radio play ‘Lemon Meringue Pie’ was broadcast on BBC Radio 4′s Afternoon Play slot 2008. Her first venture into theatre, ‘I Sing [...]

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Kelly Valen is the author of The Twisted Sisterhood: Unraveling the Dark Legacy of Female Friendships, a book she wrote after initially penning a 2007 essay for the New York Times. In both, Valen tackles the idea that some women are their own worst enemies – from sabotaging their own friendships to undermining and criticising [...]

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Smoke Fairies are Katherine Blamire and Jessica Davies, a British folk/blues duo who combine plucked guitars and harmonies to create lush, ethereal songs. Their critically acclaimed debut album, Through Low Light And Trees, was released earlier this year and produced by Jack White of the White Stripes. The band took their name from the summer mist that collects in [...]

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Catherine O’Flynn’s debut novel was rejected by over 20 agents, before being published by independent publishers Tindal Street Press. What Was Lost – the story of a missing girl set largely in a shopping centre - was long listed for the 2007 Man Booker Prize for Fiction, the Orange Prize for Fiction, and shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award. [...]

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Author and journalist Kate Figes has written about everything from different aspects of bitching to the challenges of parenthood, but at the heart of her work is family life in all its many forms. Her latest book, Couples (Virago, £14.99stg), is an insightful and fascinating look at what makes long-term relationships work, whether gay or [...]

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Actor and director Anjelica Huston is the star of numerous acclaimed films, from Prizzi’s Honour – for which she won an Oscar in 1985 – and The Addams Family to The Royal Tenenbaums. She spent much of her childhood in Ireland and starred in her legendary director father John’s celebrated 1987 adaptation of James Joyce’s [...]

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Eileen Walsh is currently playing the lead role in Medea by Siren Productions, at the Samuel Beckett Theatre, Trinity College, Dublin (ABSOLUT Fringe, until 25th September). Her theatre work includes Macbeth, Terminus (Abbey Theatre); The Gigli Concert (Druid); Disco Pigs (Corcadorca/Bush/Arts Theatre); Crave (Royal Court), The Drowned World (Traverse Theatre) and Mary Stuart (National Theatre [...]

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Babybeef is the name of the electro pop solo project of multi instrumentalist Sarah Carroll Kelly. Her music combines pure hyper-coloured unashamed 1980′s influenced FM plastic pop with darker driven sounds & undercurrents that references A-ha, New Order, Devo and the more contemporary, fresher sounds of LCD Soundsystem, The Juan MacLean, Daft Punk & Yeasayer. In [...]

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