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Does the modern festival of Halloween, with its traditions of flying witches, games of chance and haunted by ghosts, have its roots in the Stone Age?
Researcher Padraig Meehan explores the possibility that the turning points marking seasonal change were intentionally marked in the central monument at the Carrowmore passage tomb complex in County Sligo.
Developed from an early oral storytelling tradition dating back to the dawn of European culture, this is one of the oldest and most vibrant of Europe’s mythologies. From all six Celtic cultures – Irish, Scots, Welsh, Cornish, Manx and Breton – Peter Berresford Ellishas included popular myths and legends, as well as bringing to light exciting new tales which have been lying in manuscript form, untranslated and unknown to the modern general reader. The author brings not only his extensive knowledge of source material but also his acclaimed skills of storytelling to produce an original, enthralling and definitive collection of Celtic myths and legends – tales of gods and goddesses, heroes and heroines, magical weapons, fabulous beasts, and entities from the ancient Celtic world.
Desdemona’s love for Othello, the Moor, transcends racial prejudice; but the envious Iago conspires to devastate their lives. This novel renders racism, sexism, contested identities, and the savagery lurking within civilisation.
The story is about a little flower bud who is so afraid of all the things she hears on the wind that she hides behind her leaves and petals imagining all sorts of scary things that might happen to her. Because of her fears, she doesn?t want to bloom – thereby preventing herself from reaching her full potential as a beautiful flower. However, eventually she blooms and realises that all of her fears were unfounded.
Everyman Complete poems. WB Yeats
A leader of the twentieth-century Irish nationalist movement, who eventually became one of the Free States’ senators, William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) is also the greatest poet that nation has yet produced. The present selection includes poetry from every period in life, dealing with all the topics closest to his heart: love, death, old age, ambition, the poet’s craft, and of course the history and destiny of Ireland.
The Professor is Charlotte Brontes first novel, in which she audaciously inhabits the voice and consciousness of a man, William Crimsworth. Like Jane Eyre he is parentless; like Lucy Snowe in Villette he leaves the certainties of England to forge a life in Brussels. But as a man, William has freedom of action, and as a writer Bronte is correspondingly liberated, exploring the relationship between power and sexual desire.
William’s first person narration reveals his attraction to the dominating directress of the girls’ school where he teaches, played out in the school’s ‘secret garden’. Balanced against this is his more temperate relationship with one of his pupils, Frances Henri, in which mastery and submission interplay. The Professor was published only after Charlotte Brontes death; today it gives us a fascinating insight into the first stirrings of her supreme creative imagination.
The Rabbit Who Wants To Fall Asleep
When Roger can’t fall asleep, Mummy Rabbit takes him to see Uncle Yawn, who knows just what to do. Children will join Roger on his journey and be lulled to sleep alongside their new friend.
A passionate story of the love between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff, a foundling adopted by Catherine’s father. The story’s action is chaotic and violent, but the accomplished handling of a complex structure, the descriptions of the moorland setting and the poetic grandeur combined to make this novel a masterpiece of English literature.
In You Are Here, bestselling author and celebrated astronaut Chris Hadfield creates a virtual orbit of Earth, giving us the really big picture: this is our home, from space. The millions of us who followed Hadfield’s news-making Twitter feed from the ISS thought we knew what we were looking at when we first saw his photos. But we may have caught the beauty and missed the full meaning.
Now, in this book of photographs from the International Space Station – many of which have never been shared – Hadfield unveils a fresh and insightful look at our planet. He sees astonishing detail and importance in these images, not just because he’s spent months in space but because his in-depth knowledge of geology, geography, and meteorology allows him to reveal the photos’ mysteries. Featuring Hadfield’s favourite images, You Are Here is divided by continent and represents one (idealized) orbit of the ISS.
This planetary photo tour – surprising, playful, thought-provoking, and visually delightful – provides a breathtakingly beautiful perspective on the wonders of the world. You Are Here opens a singular window on our planet, using remarkable photographs to illuminate the history and consequences of human settlement, the magnificence of newly uncovered landscapes, and the power of the natural forces shaping our world and the future of our species.
Esther first sees Ted walking in a park in London. They lock eyes and for a fraction of a second, she feels something she s never felt before.
She starts by reading up about his life in Canada and his work as an actor.
Then she watches every interview with him online. It isn t long before she s joined Ted s fan site online where her and the Tedettes stalk his every move.
When Ted gets a new celebrity girlfriend, Esther decides that things have gone far enough. She leaves her husband, takes all their savings, and buys a one-way ticket to Canada.
After all, Ted might not know it yet, but they are meant to be together he just needs a little bit of persuading.
The first collection of Booker Prize-winning writer Anne Enright’s non-fiction writing about culture, literature and her own life
‘Anne Enright might just be Ireland s greatest living writer’ THE TIMES
‘A joy to read’ MAGGIE O’FARRELL
For thirty years Anne Enright has been paying attention: casting her lucid and distinctive gaze across the world, literature and her own life, and gifting us with her precise insights.
These essays, collated from across Enright’s career, take us from Dublin to Galway, Canada to Honduras. They delve into Enright s own family history, and explore the free voices and controlled bodies of women in society and fiction. She offers new perspectives on writers including Alice Munro, Toni Morrison, James Joyce, Helen Garner and Angela Carter.
In Enright s fiction, speech can transform, rupture, enliven and liberate.
In these essays, she speaks to us directly. Electrifying, probing and exuberant, this is a defining collection from one of our most distinguished literary voices.
When the dark clouds come, can the boy remember what he needs to get through the storm?The hugely anticipated new book from Charlie Mackesy, revisiting the much-loved world of The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse – the bestselling adult non-fiction book of all time, with over ten million readers around the world.
Description
Beneath our feet, in our hedgerows, trees and under our seas lies a complex community of beings that goes unseen and unheard by us humans. Soil is the stuff of life itself, bustling with microbes, fungi, beetles and earthworms that soften seeds, nurture saplings and provide all the potential for spring’s bounty. Ferns, primroses, wild violet and canopy leaves of overhead trees are the framework for the hidden power behind a butterfly wing or the singing of a wren.
Here, Anja Murray fills us with wonder for the wonderful world of Ireland’s wild plants and animals through the seasons. From fungi to the origins of feral pigeons, primroses to sea turtles, each piece contains elements of science, history and folklore. Witness the extraordinary mating rituals of frogs and hares.
Discover the incredible secret language of mice in their epic daily battle to survive and avoid capture with the swoop of the sparrowhawk.