James somehow escaped me then, his level of sophistication regarding life in general, and especially regarding everything related to art, far outstripping my own—though this West of Ireland girl has been learning scraps of art history and art technique throughout her life. Lloyd nurtures the artistic ambitions of her teenaged son James, absorbing and exploiting his painted images, as the pupil quickly surpasses his master's achievements. The novel is set over the summer of 1979, easily dated for readers by reporting of the assassination of Louis Mountbatten in August 1979. Audrey Magee's latest novel is set in 1979 on an unnamed island off Ireland's Atlantic coast where traditional life and language are receding to extinction.

These parts really hit home for me - I finished a passage one morning then walked past the place where the murder had taken place.Following in the literary tradition of Synge, Trevor and Tóibín, The Colony portrays Irish lives cornered by the dead weight of tradition. This word receives several meanings and shades in the novel, and the island with its inhabitants is the place which can be appreciated if not fully comprehended only by those who want to bond themselves with it. She was Ireland Correspondent of The Times for six years, and wrote extensively about the Troubles in Northern Ireland, the subsequent peace process and the chaos caused by the Omagh bomb. For one thing, he speaks Irish, being a linguist who specialises in “languages threatened with extinction”. The colony recognises some of the fundamental ironies in the situation the islanders find themselves in.

She gives Mairéad and James their her own version of being rescued from English dominance by the French. However, this issue of maintaining language – and its relationship to the colonial project – is intelligently explored. The actual residents of the island grudgingly tolerate both of them as they are paying guests who bring in much needed capital as the native fishing industry has also been dying out – quite literally as both James' father and grandfather died at sea.

Lloyd wants to paint birds, seascapes, light; to “create them / as they already are” – a nice definition of what an artist does. I plan to comment on your review properly now I’ve read it Jacqui when I can sit properly at my computer … am away at present and am writing this while a passenger in the car. The novel moves smoothly from one point of view to the next, we see what the visitors and the islanders think, how their ideas and hopes contrast with the other. Magee’s characters clearly exist primarily as a means of exploring ideas about imperialism in Irish history and the politics surrounding the Gaelic language. Literary and highly readable, with vivid characters and a sophisticated exploration of its subject matter, The colony engaged us on all levels.