Sun Aug 8

The Tainted – writing fiction about Irish imperial experience - Cauvery Madhavan & Dr Ida Milne

Cauvery Madhavan was born in India and moved to Ireland thirty three years ago. She is the author of three books of fiction – Paddy Indian, The Uncoupling and The Tainted. The Tainted was awarded the  runner-up prize in SAHR Prize for Military Fiction. It was listed by The Times UK as the Top 40 Historical Fiction in May 2020 and was picked by An Post Book Awards as their Top 5 Summer Reads 2020. Cauvery has written for the The Irish Times, Irish Independent, Evening Herald, the Sunday Tribune, The Phoenix  and Travel Extra. She lives with her husband and three children in County Kildare and is working on her fourth novel.

Dr Ida Milne is Lecturer in European History at Carlow College. Originally from Ferns, Co Wexford, and currently living in Kildare, she worked in the newspaper industry and as a travel journalist, before returning to education in 2000. She was awarded the prestigious Irish Research Council Marie Sklowodska Curie Actions Elevate fellowship in 2014-18, for a project exploring the impact of infectious diseases of childhood on Irish society over the course of the 20th century. Her principle research field is the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic. During Covid-19, she has become a frequent commentator on news media in Ireland and internationally about the lessons to be drawn from the history of epidemic disease.