Laura Harrison McBride

"It's not that the Irish are cynical. It's simply that they have a wonderful lack of respect for everything and everybody." -- Brendan Behan

Of In Search of Modern Ireland by Bryce Webster (a/k/a, Laura Harrison McBride), Publisher's Weekly called it "an unusual, insightful contribution to the genre."

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When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.

I never took that to heart until I had to endure the

DREADED UK DRIVING TEST.

I ended up taking an intensive course, not because I didn't know how to drive--as a journalist for 40 years, I darn well did. But I didn't know how to deal with the UK driving examiners, another breed entirely, nor the roads, another kettle of fish--and rocks and hedgerows and WWII vets who got their licenses without EVER taking a test.

I had a great time. It turned out that it wasn't that hard, and I got one little mark off on my test because I'd forgotten to ask where the demister was on the learner car; it had been unaccountably sunny all week. But the instructor and I developed a great friendship since he realized right away he wasn't teaching me to drive, he was just teaching me the ropes. And then, since I wanted to write a mystery next, it seemed logical to make the main character a driving instructor.

And so Shelf Barker, "soft-boiled detective" and sometime driving school instructor was born.

He's now starring in his first adventure, Crash Course, available in paper on both side of the pond, and electronically from a whole slew of places. -- LHMcB.

About Laura Harrison McBride

Laura Harrison McBride is an author, journalist, artist and ethicist whose work in that last area has reaped great rewards in terms of hate mail from the religious right, the gormlessly greedy and the unconscionably uncouth.

When not stirring up hornet's nests--otherwise known as causing people to think about things--she writes lighter fare. Most recently, of course, she has penned the first mystery in a series about Shelf Barker, the first "soft-boiled" detective and sometime driving instructor.

She is a big fan of New York City, where she was born, and of Key West, where she has customarily recharged for decades. She discovered the island two minutes before David Wolkowsky opened the Pier House beach hotel and restaurants, thus starting the unfortunate internationalization--ending with Disney ships parking off Mallory Square--that has sent true conchs into hiding for some of the year. She is sorry to say her husband may have contributed to this transformation as Wolkowsky asked McBride's geologist husband for help in keeping his beach from washing away. But she is happy to note that Wolkowsky is a philanthropist who supports teaching in Key West schools. Jimmy Buffett credits Wolkowsky with starting Buffett's career by hiring him to play in one of the Pier House bars. (Maybe I should have hung around that beach longer!)

She is also a big fan of Ireland, particularly of far northwest Donegal. She is a citizen of the Republic of Ireland, her ancestral home...allowing a sort of melting-pot infusion from a few other ancestral European nations, as well. And she has done a great deal of work publicizing both the tourist and industrial growth of the Emerald Isle.

She is currently a resident of Cornwall, England, the most Celtic of England's counties. Fair warning: Do not use the term Cornwall in the same sentence as England. Local fanatics have been known to attack, not yet having figured out that they have failed to gain independence as the Irish (mainly) did. Despite the uncouth behaviors of some of the peninsula's less reality-grounded residents, the county is beautiful and, in the main, welcoming.

Read more about Laura's peripatetic life here.

Read more about Laura's varied career--including the cooking and the horsing around--here.