Book of the week: The Lyrics by Paul McCartney
McCartney’s charming delve into his back catalogue is the ‘closest to an autobiography we’ll get’

The accumulated horror of Ireland’s Magdalene laundries – in which an estimated 30,000 girls were incarcerated, some as late as the mid-1990s – is “hard to comprehend”, said Lucy Scholes in The Daily Telegraph. But in this astonishing novella, Claire Keegan “distils the years of suffering and torture” into a “tale of quiet but monumental devastation”.
It begins near Christmas 1985, in the small town of New Ross; coal merchant Bill Furlong is making a delivery to the local convent when he discovers a “barely conscious, barefooted girl”. She is “lying on the freezing floor” in the coal house – and begs him to “ask them about my baby”.
The tale that follows is one of acute conscience-wrestling, said Claire Lowdon in The Sunday Times: Bill can’t ignore his “misgivings about the convent”, but knows that acting upon them will probably harm his family. The “act of quiet heroism” with which the novella ends tips it over into sentimentality. Still, there is “plenty to admire in this snow globe of a story that fits a whole, bustling, striving, yearning world into 114 finely wrought pages”.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Faber & Faber 114pp £10; The Week Bookshop £7.99
The Week Bookshop
To order this title or any other book in print, visit theweekbookshop.co.uk, or speak to a bookseller on 020-3176 3835. Opening times: Monday to Saturday 9am-5.30pm and Sunday 10am-4pm.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Scientists want to fight malaria by poisoning mosquitoes with human blood
Under the radar Drugging the bugs
By Devika Rao, The Week US Published
-
Crossword: March 31, 2025
The Week's daily crossword
By The Week Staff Published
-
Sudoku medium: March 31, 2025
The Week's daily medium sudoku puzzle
By The Week Staff Published
-
Following the Tea Horse Road in China
The Week Recommends This network of roads and trails served as vital trading routes
By The Week UK Published
-
Roast lamb shoulder with ginger and fresh turmeric recipe
The Week Recommends Succulent and tender and falls off the bone with ease
By The Week UK Published
-
Adolescence and the toxic online world: what's the solution?
Talking Point The hit Netflix show is a window into the manosphere, red pills and incels
By The Week Staff Published
-
Snow White: Disney's 'earnest effort to meet an impossible brief'
Talking Point Live-action remake of Disney classic is not the disaster it could have been – but where's the personality?
By The Week UK Published
-
Don McCullin picks his favourite books
The Week Recommends The photojournalist shares works by Daniel Defoe, Lesley Blanch and Roland Philipps
By The Week UK Published
-
6 breathtaking homes in capital cities
Feature Featuring a glass conservatory in Atlanta and a loft library in Boston
By The Week US Published
-
Playhouse Creatures: 'dream-like' play is 'lively, funny and sharp-witted'
Anna Chancellor offers a 'glinting performance' alongside a 'strong' supporting cast
By The Week UK Published
-
The CIA Book Club: 'entertaining and vivid' book explores a huge Cold War secret
The Week Recommends 'Gripping' narrative explores a covert smuggling operation across the Iron Curtain
By The Week UK Published