A Streak of Madness

Cochrane gave expression to the feelings of the marginalised: the young, the unemployed, and people living close to the borders of sanity and respectability.

The first in a series of semi autobiographical novels, described in his obituary in the Independent (18.09.04) as “by turns uproariously funny, bawdy, blasphemous, touching and sad”, he gave expression to the feelings of the marginalised: the young, the unemployed, and people living close to the borders of sanity and respectability.

Cochrane’s account of rural and small town life in Northern Ireland was rich in detail about the sectarian undercurrents, like life in the Orange Order.