Maggie O'Farrell has written a new novel set during the Great Famine in Ireland.

The book, titled Land, centres on an Irish map-maker working for the British army in the mid-19th century.

O'Farrell said she wanted to tell the story of Ireland through one plot of land.

Her great-great-grandfather made Ordnance Survey maps for the British from 1848, after the famine had killed at least one million people and forced many more to leave.

The novel covers colonisation, devastation, and the eviction of families from estates owned by British landowners.

O'Farrell was born in Northern Ireland and moved to Britain as a child.

She recalled experiences of anti-Irish sentiment in Britain during the 1970s, including teachers asking if her father was in the IRA.

O'Farrell said multiple factors caused the famine, including the potato blight and the political and socioeconomic circumstances of British colonial rule.

She called civil servant Charles Trevelyan's attitude to the famine upsetting and called for his knighthood to be revoked.

Land is due to be published on 2 June 2026.