John McGahern’s Macauley Award

John McGahern’s Macauley Award turned recognition into a practical upheaval: its £1,000 prize came with a requirement to travel abroad for a year, drawing him away from his teaching post and into a succession of moves across Europe. The award arrived as he was writing The Dark in Dublin, too quickly by his later account, and its conditions shaped the year in which he married Annikki Laaksi and lived outside Ireland.