Carlo Gébler. Credit: David Barker The Good Friday Agreement, recession life and Brexit through to creative writing with prisoners, festive days without electricity and honouring old friends – a mere selection of what appears in Carlo Gébler’s latest work. A Cold Eye: Notes from a Shared Island 1989-2024 is the stitching together of 35 years of history.

Sharp, affectionate, insightful, at times bleak, the episodes are drawn from journals he has kept for more than four decades..