Once lauded ‘the best writer in Ireland’, Johnston began publishing in her 40s and was Booker-shortlisted for her 1977 novel set during the Troubles, Shadows on Our Skin

Jennifer Johnston, the Booker-shortlisted novelist and playwright who explored family, loss and memory against the backdrop of a changing Ireland, has died aged 95.

Lauded as “the best writer in Ireland” by novelist Roddy Doyle, Johnston published regularly across the four-decade span of her career, which began when she was in her 40s.