James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was born on the 2nd February 1882 in Dublin into a middle-class family, and the eldest of ten surviving siblingsAdmired as a brilliant student he briefly attended the Christian Brothers-run O'Connell School before excelling at the Jesuit schools of Clongowes and Belvedere. From there he went on to attend University College Dublin from 1898, studying English, French and ItalianIn 1902, Joyce was now in his early twenties, and went to Paris to s...

FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF REBECCA'I tell you your mine will be in ruins and your home destroyed and your children forgotten . . . but this hill will be standing still to confound you.'So curses Morty Donovan when 'Cooper John' Brodrick builds his mine at Hungry Hill.The Brodricks of Clonmere gain great wealth by harnessing the power of Hungry Hill and extracting the treasure it holds. The Donovans, the original owners of Clonmere Castle, resent the Brodricks' succ...

These British Isles, moored across from mainland Europe, are more often seen as a world unto themselves. Restless and creative, they often warred amongst themselves until they began a global push to forge a World Empire of territory, of trade and of language.Here our ambitions are only of the literary kind. These shores have mustered many masters of literature. So this anthology’s boundaries includes only those authors who were born in the British Isles - which as a geographical de...

The cat. Independent when it wants and making us dependent on its whims when it deems. Cats are first thought of as being domesticated in the Near East in about 7500 BC. A few thousand years later in Ancient Egypt they are worshipped as gods. From a domestic cat’s point of view this is pretty much the life they want and that some cats lead right now.Their larger cousins whether in forest, savannah, mountains or desert were fated for their speed, strength, beauty, feline powers and ...

From the author of Shadowplay, shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize, The Costa Novel Prize and Novel of the Year winner at the An Post Irish Book Awards.All alone, with only his electric guitar and his overactive ego for company, Eddie Virago, proud owner of the last mohican haircut in Dublin, leaves his home town to find fame in the wild world of the London rock scene. Things don't quite go as planned, however, and he finds himself living in a ramshackle hotel with a neurotic gi...

Rosa Mulholland was born in Belfast on 19th March 1841.She originally wished to become a painter but turned to literary pursuits and attempted to publish her first book at 15. Charles Dickens, who took an early interest in her work, did much to encourage and help her during his lifetime including publishing many of her works in his magazine ‘All the Year Round’.Her early years in the remote and mountainous west of Ireland helped her gather backdrops, landscapes and characte...

Francis Edward Ledwidge was born on 19th August, 1887 in the small village of Janeville in Slane, County Meath in Ireland to parents that believed strongly in education.At the age of 5 his father died and the entire family, already desperately poor, were forced into work and by 13 the young Ledwidge took whatever job was to hand—from farm hand to road labourer. Throughout this time he applied himself to his poetry writing whenever and wherever he could. His poems were published on ...

From the novelist the New York Times compares to Paul Bowles, Evelyn Waugh and Ian McEwan, an evocative new work of literary suspense Adrift in Cambodia, Robert Grieve - pushing thirty and eager to side-step a life of quiet desperation as a small-town teacher - decides to go AWOL. As he crosses the border from Thailand, he tests the threshold of a new future. And on that first night, a small windfall precipitates a chain of events involving a bag of "jinxed" money, a suave American, a trun...

'A boisterous chorus, brimming with humanity. All Along the Echo feels like a living thing, dancing and dodging, surprising and poignant' Lisa McInerneyFIRST VOICE: Why are we listening?SECOND VOICE: I dunno, I mean, what else is there to do?Tony Cooney, a local-radio DJ, spends his days on air, talking to the listeners of Cork. They call in to tell him about overturned sewage trucks and nuisance graffiti artists, each story a small testimony to the bustle of life th...

Short stories have always been a sort of instant access into an author’s brain, their soul and heart. A few pages can lift our lives into locations, people and experiences with a sweep of landscape, narration, feelings and emotions that is difficult to achieve elsewhere.In this series we try to offer up tried and trusted ‘Top Tens’ across many different themes and authors. But any anthology will immediately throw up the questions – Why that story? Why that author?The theme ...

Short stories have always been a sort of instant access into an author’s brain, their soul and heart. A few pages can lift our lives into locations, people and experiences with a sweep of landscape, narration, feelings and emotions that is difficult to achieve elsewhere.In this series we try to offer up tried and trusted ‘Top Tens’ across many different themes and authors. But any anthology will immediately throw up the questions – Why that story? Why that author?The theme ...

'Gripping, even-handed and forensic ... Part political thriller, part fiscal horror, this book should be a must-read for every taxpayer and policymaker' MIRIAM O'CALLAGHANIt was meant to be a symbol of how far Ireland had come - a world-class national children's hospital that would finally honour the promise of the nation's founders to cherish all its children equally. Instead, it became a cautionary tale of ambition gone awry.In Billio...