Philip Matthews: 39 books

A fantasy opera in three acts, with a prelude, some intermissions and an Aftermath. It is the second mystery in a cycle of three mysteries, and performs the Mystery of the Mother.

Dublin 1985, wet summer: the Cold War encroaching while a disparate group of young people undergo transformative experiences.

1985 is a cool wet summer. Dan White and his wife, Charlotte, have a new son, their first. Dan is using the summer vacation to prepare one of those obscure endowed Memorial Lectures that the older universities have accrued over the centuries. He is also intrigued by his discovery that the Cold War...

A retelling of the old Irish tale about Oisín in the Land of Youth, but with a modern sequel in which the Fairy Princess is brought to Earth. After the failure of a love relationship, a young man travels to Kerry in order to throw himself into the ocean there. Complications prevent him from doing...

Ossie Rising, boss of Rising Transport Services and a noted philantropist, vanished a while ago while enroute to Sarajevo. His wife, Cissy, now runs the business, aided by a devoted staff. But Ossie's wild brother, Zed, is back after his failure to make it big in the world. It's no coincidence that...

Unhappy in love, a young man sets out to drown himself. Circumstances prevent him from doing this, so that he finds himself instead carried off to an old stone house in which there is an ancient crystal mirror. Through this Looking Glass there is everything a young man might want, but of course there is also much more - that might take the young man a lifetime to understand...

The novel is a comedy of omissions that revolves around the little-noted fact that, according to Genesis, Adam was only the second person to die, and the first to die a natural death. The story opens with Adam two years abed, his descendents forced to labour in his stead, his wife to dance attention...

The time has come when man reaches the peaks of achievement promised by science. All the functions on Earth are now controlled by the World Machine, which is programmed to maintain the World Pattern indefinitely. Thus mankind has at last achieved immortality, kept alive for ever by the World Machine....

The Final Mystery is the culmination of over forty years of research and inner exploration. The mystery recounted here has not yet happened, so much of the novel will seem merely fantastical. However, it is hoped that the wealth of suggestive historical, social and personal detail, together with the inspirational effect of the three characters, will prove most persuasive for the reader.

It is about a thousand years into the future. The world is a dried out husk, most of the water having been exchanged for omnium from the Other World. The human race is dying out because most women can no longer bear children and the alternatives don't work. Artificials are self-obsessed and clones...

The novel is a comedy of omissions that revolves around the little-noted fact that, according to Genesis, Adam was only the second person to die, and the first to die a natural death. The story opens with Adam two years abed, his descendents forced to labour in his stead, his wife to dance attention...

It is about a thousand years into the future. The world is a dried out husk, most of the water having been exchanged for omnium from the Other World. The human race is dying out because most women can no longer bear children and the alternatives don't work. Artificials are self-obsessed and clones...

The novel is about the sentimental education of an Irish man, Richard Butler. Given the limited possibilities of the biographical novel, the experiences of Butler are conveyed by means of sixteen episodes that concentrate on the key incidents in his life between childhood and his mid-thirties. These...

The novel is a love story inspired by a curious feature of the life of King Solomon, that though granted the power to understand man he is later condemned for worshipping the god of his wives. The story is set in the West Country and concerns an Irish writer, Richard Butler, escaping London and a...