Mary Beckett’s ‘Give Them Stones’

When Mary Beckett wrote Give Them Stones in 1987, the Troubles novel about conflict in Northern Ireland was already a well-established genre. However, the genre was known primarily for the work of male authors; the only other Troubles novel by a woman was No Mate for the Magpie (1985) by Frances Molloy. Beckett’s Give Them Stones was met with acclaim before falling out of print. It has only been in recent decades that a younger generation of writers have begun to tell the story of how women experienced the Troubles. And yet, more recent novels, and the academic literary establishment, usually ignore the religious dimension both in the political struggle itself and in the novels that depict it.

Beckett’s novel tells the story of an ordinary working-class woman on Belfast’s back streets who is concerned only with keeping her family alive until she is called upon to stand up against violence on both sides of the political divide. She does so not because she has become politicized, but because her religious faith gives her courage. Give Them Stones is now back in print as part of the Catholic Women Writers Series with Catholic University of America Press, edited by Bonnie Lander Johnson and Julia Meszaros. In this online talk, Downing College Fellow and Associate Professor, Bonnie Lander Johnson will explore the book’s overlooked religious dimensions and make the case for restoring Beckett’s work to the literary canon. Professor Michael Scott will chair.

This event is sponsored by the Future of the Humanities Project and Blackfriars Hall, Oxford. It is part of the  series, Cultural Encounters: Books that Have Made a Difference. 

Online. Free and open to all. Registration is required.

Bonnie Lander Johnson is fellow and associate professor at Downing College, Cambridge and senior research fellow at Blackfriars Hall, Oxford. She has written numerous academic books on Renaissance literature and culture. She is an editor of the Catholic Women Writers series at Catholic University of America Press and The Oxford Handbook of Modern Catholic Women’s Writing. Her most recent book, Vanishing Landscapes (Hodder Press, 2025), combines nature writing and cultural history to tell the story of our alienation from the landscape after the Reformation.

Michael Scott (chair) is senior dean, fellow of Blackfriars Hall, Oxford, college advisor for postgraduate students, and a member of the Las Casas Institute. He also serves as senior advisor to the president of Georgetown University. Scott previously served as the pro-vice-chancellor at De Montfort University and founding vice-chancellor of Wrexham Glyndwr University, where he is professor emeritus.

upcoming events in this series

Lindsay Kaplan, Georgetown
10 Nov: ‘The Massacre of the Innocents (Matt 2)’

Professor Michael J Collins,
17 Nov: ‘“Gotta Be Goin On” America’s Encounter with the Land’

Contact:
Las Casas Institute with Georgetown University
lascasas@bfriars.ox.ac.uk