Peeling Oranges tells the story of how Derek Foley, while sifting through his late father's diaries and his mother's correspondence with an IRA man, discovers that Patrick Foley, a diplomat in Franco's Spain, was not really his father. Derek's mother, who is ailing, is unwilling to discuss the past, forcing her son on a quest that will plunge him into the early history of Irish diplomacy, taking him to Spain and later to Northern Ireland, until he discovers who his real father was-with tragic consequences. Peeling Oranges is a novel full of personal and political intrigue, fraught with...

Jo Jo is an endearing but sometimes mischievous little girl of eight years. She has a great imagination. She can talk to animals and she loves the woods where many of her adventures take place. Find out how the deer Rudolf got his red nose or what a crab turns into at the seaside or what happens to Jo Jo when she gets lost in the city or when she is whisked off to a magic kingdom. Sometimes Jo Jo can be scary too as in the spooky tale of The Moving Door Handle. Here are stories that will appeal not only to children of all ages but to imaginative adults as well who are young at heart. "James...

This acclaimed monograph is a study of poetry as an alternative way of seeing the world and of obtaining insights into realities that enable the reader to see the vast otherness that usually eludes. The process of creativity is discussed. The influences of other disciplines on the heightening of consciousness are described as well as methodologies of observation that have been employed in the last 100 years are elucidated. Attention is paid to the specific contribution of modern Irish poetry especially in the role of the poet in society. Works of three non English poets (Salinas, Lorca and...

What is noise? What happens when it gets inside your head? In his hilarious story Sound Reflections James Lawless sends up in his typical humorous fashion the effects of noise on contemporary people and this follows with the more serious poem Noise which explores the devastation uncontrolled cacophony can inflict on sensitive individuals.

A scantily-dressed girl dancing in a lighted window jolts Francis Copeland from his world of books. Francis, now approaching middleage, whose life and marriage are in a rut, fantasises about the girl and finds it hard to accept, as he discovers later, that she is Judy, a dancer in the local pub. The hidden world of the avenue unfolds to Francis. Who is Myrtle, his wife? (Does she genuinely go to bingo every Tuesday night?). He does not know her. Who are the real parents of the street kid Freddy? Who was the neighbour whose car killed Francis' mother when Francis was twelve years old? Raw...

Thirty three year old romance novelist Penelope Eames moves to Spain to avoid her oppressive father and drug-addicted brother, Dermot. When she meets Ramon, a young Spanish school teacher, she is immediately attracted to him and feels the happiness that eluded her all her life may at last be hers. However, she receives a distress call from Dermot saying he is at the mercy of Charlie Eliot, a pimp and drug dealer on the Costa. Ramon, whose mother was killed by a drug addict, tells her to have nothing to do with Charlie Eliot. Penelope must decide: is she prepared to compromise herself with...