The Raptures - A Wee Bit of Background for the Uninitiated

My third novel, The Raptures is launching on January 6th 2022. That date’s getting scarily close. If you’d like to support me and the team who are working hard behind the scenes you can pre-order a copy from your favourite Indie Book Store. Mine’s No Alibis, Belfast but buying from any independent bookseller is a brilliant and much-appreciated thing to do.

Here’s a little bit of info about The Raptures to whet your appetite before January 6th…

“It is late June in Ballylack. Hannah Adger anticipates eight long weeks' reprieve from school, but when her classmate Ross succumbs to a violent and mysterious illness, it marks the beginning of a summer like no other. As others fall ill, questions about what - or who - is responsible pitch the village into conflict and fearful disarray. Hannah is haunted by guilt as she remains healthy while her friends are struck down. Isolated and afraid, she prays for help. Elsewhere in the village, tempers simmer, panic escalates and long-buried secrets threaten to emerge.
Bursting with Carson's trademark wit, profound empathy and soaring imagination, The Raptures explores how tragedy can unite a small community - and tear it apart. At its heart is the extraordinary resilience of one young girl. As the world crumbles around her, she must find the courage to be different in a place where conforming feels like the only option available.”

The novel is set in an Evangelical Protestant community in rural Northern Ireland during the summer of 1993. It’s a world I know inside out but it may be unfamiliar to some of you who’ll be reading The Raptures or even writing about it. So, I’ve spent the last few month building up a body of essays, articles and critical work about this community to give anyone interested a wee bit of help as they attempt to orientate themseives round Ballylack and the strange world of Hannah Adger. I’ll add to these articles as they’re published and released.

1. Here’s a link to a recent BBC Radio 3 essay called Traybakes aired in December 2021 as part of the Another Northern Ireland Series (14 mins)

“Since its creation a century ago, perceptions of Northern Ireland have often been dominated by stories of conflict and political unrest. But as anyone who lives there or who has visited knows, it’s a picture that’s far from complete. Five essayists reveal Another Northern Ireland in its centenary year - the idiosyncrasies of the everyday, hidden histories and untold stories, which outsiders rarely get to hear about but which each of these writers inhabits, lives and understands.

Author Jan Carson talks about the women who kept her Presbyterian church supplied with tea and traybakes when she was growing up - and reveals what they taught her about finding her own voice.”

2. Here’s a link to Except A Man my NI Screen commissioned response to “Dust on the Bible” John T. Davis’ 1989 documentary about Evangelical Protestant culture in Northern Ireland. I wrote an essay and 5 monologues giving voice to the women who are silent but present in the documentary. The MAC Belfast graciously funded the recording of these monologues as part of #NINOW100 They were produced by Emily Foran and feature 5 brilliant NI actors. You’ll hear, in these voices, an experience similar to that of The Rapture’s main protagonist, Hannah Adger and her mother, Sandra.

“Except A Man is a series of monologues and introductory essay written by Belfast-based writer, Jan Carson in response to John T. Davis’ 1989 documentary, Dust on the Bible. Dust on the Bible remains a stunning snapshot of evangelical Protestant culture in Northern Ireland in the late 1980s. Carson grew up on the peripheries of this community and was, from an early age, aware that it was a male-dominated landscape with few opportunities for women to make their opinions or experiences known.

Each of the five monologues reflects the experience of one of the women who appear briefly in the documentary. They are - for the most part - silent, as they would have been in the religious communities they belonged to. In allowing these women to voice their thoughts and feelings, Carson seeks to explore the role of women in the evangelical Protestant tradition and lend them some degree of autonomy.”