An entertaining, heartwarming memoir detailing the adventures and valuable life lessons learned from the author’s four decades of friendship with Ozzy Osbourne and the Osbourne family.Stephen Rea was born in Northern Ireland in 1969, the same year “The Troubles” began. Violence was everywhere. His grandmother was nearly killed when gunmen opened fire on the wrong house, leaving young Stephen to pick at the bullet holes in the walls. He found refuge from this turmoi...

"This is a book for fans of New Orleans, of the universal ball game, of ex-pats and of pubs. Score 10-nil for Rea and the McCools."--The Irish American Post"Rea's book brings one of the biggest stories of the century down to a touching, emotional, personal level in a solid debut effort."--Phil Schoen, GolTV commentatorAfter jetting around the world, Stephen Rea left Belfast to settle in New Orleans in 2004. Life in the Deep South proved to be startlingly different from that...

Seamus Deane combined academic rigour with an expressive style that was characterised by both passion and commitment. Without losing any scholarly precision or acuity, he succeeded in engaging broader audiences in some of the key debates of his time. These included: the role of culture in creating political structures and conflict; the responsibility of artists, particularly writers, to articulate alternatives; and the need to think beyond Northern Ireland's political stalemate and imagine...

For the Summer 2018 World Cup, the ultimate book for soccer fans around the globe!The world will be riveted by the globe’s greatest sporting event in summer of 2018 (more than 27 million Americans watched the final game of the last tournament in Brazil). The 2018 edition will bring the sports’s greatest stars together, but who will take home the trophy?favorites Germany, France, Brazil, Argentina? Or a surprise?Belgium, Mexico, Portugal, or Colombia? And why is the...

In 2004, Belfast-born Stephen Rea moved to New Orleans, a city where "football" means something entirely different than what it does back home. After struggling to find a place to watch European soccer games, Rea discovered Finn McCool's pub and its mixed clientele of good-humored European ex-pats, charismatic New Orleanians, and assorted matchless personalities. Before long he was playing on the pub's motley over-thirty-five fledgling soccer team. Gathered at the bar on August 27, 2005, m...

Three BBC radio productions of major works by James Joyce – plus Gordon Bowker’s fascinating biographical account of his lifeUlyssesIn this full-cast dramatisation of Joyce’s epic modernist novel, the stories of Stephen Dedalus and Leopold Bloom combine as they meander through Dublin in the course of one day, 16 June 1904. Andrew Scott stars as Stephen, with Henry Goodman as Bloom, Niamh Cusack

Alan Bennett, Claire Skinner, Charles Dance and Judi Dench are among the star casts of these superlative BBC Radio productionsGraham Greene was the 20th century’s master of plot, an expert chronicler of Catholic guilt, Cold War intrigue, conflict and crime. A prolific polymath, his work incorporated serious novels, thrillers, short stories, screenplays, stage plays and more.This wide-ranging box set includes the finest examples of his early work, written be...

William Barrow finds himself in lonely retirement in West Cork. Once an internationally renowned pianist, a terrible skin disease has attacked his hands and made it impossible for him to perform.Tara is a piano teacher with barely enough pupils to pay the month's rent. In the local café, the elegant writing of a job advertisement catches her eye: 'WANTED. HOUSEKEEPER.'She begins to work in William's house, keeping to herself the knowledge that they have met three times befo...

An entertaining, heartwarming memoir detailing the adventures and valuable life lessons learned from the author’s four decades of friendship with Ozzy Osbourne and the Osbourne family.Stephen Rea was born in Northern Ireland in 1969, the same year “The Troubles” began. Violence was everywhere. His grandmother was nearly killed when gunmen opened fire on the wrong house, leaving young Stephen to pick at the bullet holes in the walls. He found refuge from this turmoi...

The young poet Stephen has been recalled from Paris to Dublin to be at his mother’s deathbed. But he refuses her dying wishes: to kneel and pray for her. Now, holed up in his Martello tower outside the city walls, he has to suffer the taunts of Buck Mulligan by day and, by night, the vision of ‘her eyes, shaking out of death to shake and bend my soul.’ Timelessly evocative, Ulysses is far more than the story of Stephen Dedalus’ journey through Dublin. It is a huge, rich portrayal of human ...

A comprehensive collection of classic works from some of Ireland’s finest authors, adapted as full-cast BBC radio dramasIreland has a long tradition of storytelling, from ancient myths and mediaeval folk tales to 21st century bestsellers, Nobel Prize laureates and Booker Prize winners. Though small in size, the country has produced an extraordinary array of influential, groundbreaking writers who have shaped the literary landscape worldwide.This extensive a...

A bumper collection of accessible classics from the perennially popular BBC Radio 4 seriesThis diverse, wide-ranging anthology features readings of 10 of the greatest books in the English language, taken from the BBC's Book at Bedtime and performed by a stellar cast of narrators. Here are nearly 27 hours of sensational stories, from iconic romances and humorous travelogues to pioneering Modernist masterpieces and compelling explorations of the human heart....