Christopher Nolan

Nolan spent more than a decade writing The Banyan Tree. According to The New York Times the book is a multigenerational story of a dairy-farming family in Nolan's native county of Westmeath. The story is seen through the eyes of the aging mother. It was inspired, he told Publishers Weekly, by the image of "an old woman holding up her skirts as she made ready to jump a rut in a field." A review of the book was done in The New York Times by Maghan O’Rourke. She reviews the book and relates it to James Joyce's Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, in the story the protagonist leaves his mother in Ireland while he moves on to travel the world. Nolan however, gives the reader a version of the mother's story. "And so, in the end, one suspects that he wants Minnie's good-natured, commonplace ways to stand as their own achievement, reminding us that life continues in the places left behind."

We tried not to make concessions [...] He came into a mixed ability class and went to all his classes. We didn’t demand homework, but he followed the normal school curriculum. We didn’t smother him: it was up to him to sink or swim, and he swam.

Inflicted with cerebral palsy, he suffered from quadriplegia since birth. He died due to choking on 20 February 2009.

While working on a new novel, on 20 February 2009, Nolan died suddenly, aged 43, in Beaumont hospital in Dublin, after a piece of salmon became trapped in his airway.

Nothing has been released from the book in progress in 2009 since his death.

Nolan wrote The Banyan Tree (published 1999) in perspective of a country woman, Minnie O’Brien. The novel spans 80 years of Minnie's life, cutting from present to past to show the individuality of a woman and a mother who is determined to save the family's farm. The Philadelphia Inquirer appreciated "Nolan's soaring language and lilting alliterative style [which] suffuse [...] much of the book with a sense of the miraculous" and the New York Times Book Review found it "richly – even baroquely – told [...] Nolan writes with verve."

On R.E.M.'s 1988 Green album, the song "The Wrong Child" was inspired by Nolan's memoir Under the Eye of the Clock. The song deals with a child who wishes to play with his peers outside but is instead laughed at. Throughout the song the refrain "I'm not supposed to be like this / But it's okay" is repeated several times.

Upon becoming a teenager, Nolan received his education from the Central Remedial Clinic School, Mount Temple Comprehensive School and at Trinity College, Dublin. His first book was published when he was fifteen; he was also awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters in the UK, the medal of excellence from the United Nations Society of Writers, and a Person of the Year award in Ireland. At the age of fifteen, he published his collection of poems titled Dam-Burst of Dreams. He wrote an account of his childhood, Under the Eye of the Clock, published by St. Martin's Press, which won him the UK's Whitbread Book of the Year Award in 1987 at the age of 21. He soon dropped out of Trinity College to write a novel entitled The Banyan Tree (1999).

Nolan's autobiography Under the Eye of the Clock (published 1987), won the Whitbread Award and was named Book of the Year. Although an autobiography, it is narrated by a fictional character named Joseph Meehan who details Nolan's life as a third-person biography. The book reveals the deep relationship between Nolan and his mother, whom he calls Nora. Under the Eye of the Clock shows how Nolan's parents engaged him in conversation and outdoor activities like hiking and horseback riding. The book was a best-seller in Britain and the United States. Nolan's writing style is often compared to James Joyce and Dylan Thomas. Critics also point out Nolan's distinct writing style omits articles and uses participle construction other than relative clauses.

Dam-Burst of Dreams (published 1981), provided Nolan critical acclaim that compared him to the works of W. B. Yeats and James Joyce. The collection was published four years after Nolan was administered Lioresal but some of the poems were written when Nolan was just 12 years old. The title of the collection emphasized the theme surrounding most of the poems, the overflow and release of his mental intellect. His poems in the collection are heavy with alliteration, and incorporate words invented by Nolan utilizing the combination of pre-existing root words.

Christopher Nolan (6 September 1965 – 20 February 2009) was an Irish poet and author. He was born in Mullingar, Ireland, but later moved to Dublin. He was educated at the Central Remedial Clinic School, Mount Temple Comprehensive School and at Trinity College, Dublin. His first book was published when he was fifteen. He won the Whitbread Book Award for his autobiography in 1987. He was also awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters in the UK, the medal of excellence from the United Nations Society of Writers, and a Person of the Year award in Ireland.