Talking to Strangers

A compelling memoir. Absorbing and graced with a deceptive lightness of touch ... Harding writes like an angel - Sunday Times on Hanging with the Elephant

An edifying journey of self-discovery - Irish Mail on Sunday on Hanging with the Elephant

Wonderful ... Like many people who have achieved a great deal, [Harding] cannot recognise his triumphs. This book, like its predecessor, is one of them - John Boyne, Irish Times on Hanging with the Elephant

Harding is a self-deprecating and winsome writer whose bittersweet musings on middle-age, loneliness and the search for spiritual enlightenment in post-Catholic Ireland are leavened by an incredibly dry and unforced wit. However, it's the sections in which Harding focuses on his relationship with his mother... that Hanging with the Elephant reaches lump-in-throat-inducing levels of poignancy - Metro Herald on Hanging with the Elephant

Often funny, occasionally disturbing and not without its moments of deep sadness, Harding has peeled back his soul and held it out on the palm of his hand for all to see - Christine Dwyer Hickey on Hanging with the Elephant

It's rare for a memoir to demand such intense emotional involvement, and rarer still for it to be so fully rewarded - Sunday Times on Staring at Lakes

I read this book in one sitting ... it held me and wouldn't let go - Mary McEvoy, Irish Independent on Staring at Lakes

This memoir grabs you from the outset and holds you right to the end. Harding traverses the human soul and excavates its deepest secrets. His language sings. Extraordinary - Deirdre Purcell on Staring at Lakes