Jordan, Neil

(Irish, 1950– )

Best known as a director of films like The Crying Game and Angel, Jordan began his career as a writer with an acclaimed collection of short stories, Night in Tunisia (1976), the title story of which describes a father and son reconciled by the music of jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker. Jordan's subsequent novels, starting with The Past (1980), introduced fantastic elements into his accounts of ordinary lives, and The Dream of a Beast (1983) creates a compelling dream landscape around an advertising copywriter trying to describe the scent of musk. Sunrise with Sea Monster (1995) is written from the viewpoint of an Irish volunteer imprisoned during the Spanish Civil War. Jordan's writing is marked by a visual clarity and emotional precision that makes his fiction as immediate and vivid as his cinema.

Angela Carter, Patrick McCabe, Rachel Ingalls  WB