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Lissadell House, Sligo, 1915. In the Big House, young housemaid Lily feels life is changing for everyone – decisions are being made by others for her friend Maeve de Markievicz, the countesses daughter, and Lily fears for her new friend Sam also. Can Lily help her friends without getting into too much trouble?
‘Hi, my name is Matthew, although you may know me by another name.
My friends call me Matty. And I should be dead.’
So begins the riveting story of acclaimed actor Matthew Perry, taking us along on his journey from childhood ambition to fame to addiction and recovery in the aftermath of a life-threatening health scare. Before the frequent hospital visits and stints in rehab, there was five-year-old Matthew, who travelled from Montreal to Los Angeles, shuffling between his separated parents; fourteen-year-old Matthew, who was a nationally ranked tennis star in Canada; twenty-four-year-old Matthew, who nabbed a coveted role as a lead cast member on the talked-about pilot then called Friends Like Us.
. . and so much more.
In an extraordinary story that only he could tell – and in the heartfelt, hilarious, and warmly familiar way only he could tell it – Matthew Perry lays bare the fractured family that raised him (and also left him to his own devices), the desire for recognition that drove him to fame, and the void inside him that could not be filled even by his greatest dreams coming true.
But he also details the peace he’s found in sobriety and how he feels about the ubiquity of Friends, sharing stories about his castmates and other stars he met along the way. Frank, self-aware, and with his trademark humour, Perry vividly depicts his lifelong battle with addiction and what fuelled it despite seemingly having it all.
Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing is an unforgettable memoir that is both intimate and eye-opening – as well as a hand extended to anyone struggling with sobriety. Unflinchingly honest, moving, and uproariously funny, this is the book fans have been waiting for.
An immersive collection of poetry to open your world, curated by the host of Poetry UnboundThis inspiring collection, edited by Padraig O Tuama, presents fifty poems about what it means to be alive in the world today. Each poem is paired with Padraig’s illuminating commentary that offers personal anecdotes and generous insights into the content of the poem. Engaging, accessible and inviting, Poetry Unbound is the perfect companion for everyone who loves poetry and for anyone who wants to go deeper into poetry but doesn’t necessarily know how to do so.
Poetry Unbound contains expanded reflections on poems as heard on the podcast, as well as exclusive new selections. Contributors include Hanif Abdurraqib, Patience Agbabi, Raymond Antrobus, Margaret Atwood, Ada Limon, Kei Miller, Roger Robinson, Lemn Sissay, Layli Long Soldier and more.
A poignant and introspective memoir from Irish journalist and broadcaster Charlie Bird. In 2021, Charlie Bird was diagnosed with motor neurone disease – a man whose voice was so synonymous with his career faced losing it completely. Yet knowing he had just a short time left with family and friends, what emerged was a great sense of resilience and motivation to take advantage of every moment.
Here, Charlie reflects on his life and phenomenal broadcast career through the lens of his diagnosis, as he ponders the big questions and takes stock of the small moments that we so often overlook. Written over the course of 2022 as his health deteriorated, with the help of long-time friend and fellow journalist Ray Burke, this is a candid and unforgettable story about the triumph of the human spirit and, ultimately, what it means to be alive.
Aoife O’Driscoll travels home to Sligo for a family gathering to mark the twentieth anniversary of her father’s death. While there, the discovery of a long-buried box and its disturbing contents sends her on a terrifying journey through her family’s past. Chasing secrets, while trying to hold her life together, becomes increasingly difficult. Breaking up with her fiancé Connor at a point when she desperately needs support, she falls deeper into an obsession with finding the truth, knowing that her investigations threaten to shatter the lives of everyone she loves – her mother, her brother Sam, her sister Kate, her young niece and nephew. She is left to face the question: how high a price is she willing to pay to protect her family and can she live with the consequences?
Infused with the authors’ abiding love of their native Sligo and their lifelong infatuation with the world of sport, Local Heroes: A Celebration of Sligo Sport offers a fascinating and vivid insight into what it takes to be a bona fide local hero. Featuring the most comprehensive collection of Sligo sports stars ever assembled between the covers of a book, award-winning journalists Jim and Leo Gray tell the gripping stories of more than 60 sportsmen and sportswomen whose exploits have earned them an exalted place in any pantheon of all-time greats.
Unlikely as it may seem, Sligo’s fingerprints are to be found at some of the world’s iconic sporting events, from the Olympic Games to the Aintree Grand National; the FA Cup final to the Tour de France; major golf tournaments to the Premier League. Those stories are related here with deep insights from the participants, history-makers who proudly put Sligo on the sporting map. But the pages are laced, too, with heroic endeavours of sportsmen and sportswomen who may not be so well known outside their native county, but whose achievements have marked them as immortal local legends.
In more than 70 essays across a vast range of sports, the veteran reporters cast a new spotlight on the county’s big occasions at venues such as Croke Park, the Aviva Stadium, Cheltenham and Olympic Games stadia, as well as taking a deep dive into the local cauldron of sporting activity, highlighting events and characters who have illuminated the county’s rich sporting heritage.
Local Heroes is intended as a permanent monument to those whose sporting greatness has enriched the lives of generations of Sligonians.
Our ancestors developed a uniquely nature-focused society, centred on esteemed poets, seers, monks, healers and wise women who were deeply connected to the land. They used this connection to the cycles of the natural world – from which we are increasingly dissociated – as an animating force in their lives. In this illuminating new book, Manchan Magan sets out on a journey, through bogs, across rivers and over mountains, to trace these ancestor’s footsteps.
He uncovers the ancient myths that have shaped our national identity and are embedded in the strata of land that have endured through millennia – from ice ages through to famines and floods. Here, the River Shannon is a goddess, and trees and their life-sustaining root systems are hallowed. See the world in a new light in this magical exploration into the life-sustaining wisdom of what lies beneath us.
Now they are yours to explore too.
Robert O Connor was not expecting cheering crowds to greet him on his return to
Dromahair. Few there were likely to view him as a war hero. Nobody believed he had
acted out of principle when he enlisted, as the man had never served any cause other
than his own. That did not bother Robert. If anything, he revelled in the notoriety.
After all, he was destined for bigger and better things than his home village could
offer.
A stunning collection of poetry chosen by Aoibhin Garrihy to inspire, delight and comfort. These powerful verses will guide you through the stresses of modern life, touching on themes such as friendship, love, home, parenting, and grief. With lines of classic and contemporary wisdom taken from a wide range of poets including Emily Bronte, W. B. Yeats, Seamus Heaney, Anne Casey and Jan Brierton, this anthology will bring joy to every reader.
Crazy Dreams is the compelling and highly anticipated autobiography from Paul Brady, a musician whose remarkable career has spanned six decades and who is indisputably one of Ireland’s greatest living songwriters.
‘It all starts with waking up… to what our bodies are expressing and our minds are suppressing’
Western countries invest billions in healthcare, yet mental illness and chronic diseases are on a seemingly unstoppable rise. Nearly 70% of Americans are now on prescription drugs.
So what is ‘normal’ when it comes to health?
Over four decades of clinical experience, renowned physician and addiction expert Dr Gabor Mate has seen how health systems neglect the role that trauma exerts on our bodies and our minds. Medicine often fails to treat the whole person, ignoring how today’s culture stresses our bodies, burdens our immune systems and undermines emotional balance.
Now, in his most ambitious and urgent book yet, Dr Mate connects the dots between our personal suffering and the pressures of modern-day living – with disease as a natural reflection of a life spent growing further and further apart from our true selves. But, with deep compassion, he also shows us a pathway to health and healing.
If the past is a foreign country, then Charlie McGettigan is the best of tour guides. His book takes us back to Ballyshannon in the 1950s, avoiding the clichéd golden summers where sweetness and light prevailed. Instead he takes us around the back of the set to show us a ‘warts and all’ view of Irish life in what are laughingly called ‘the good old days,’ where poverty and deprivation were made worse by a dominant clerical presence and an often brutal schooling system that together succeeded in driving many young people away from both religion and education. Charlie pulls no punches but nevertheless manages to avoid being bitter, mixing the hard stories with heart-warming tales of childish fun from the pre-electronic days when you had to make your own. His stories of the hard work and dedication that brought him musical success give a snapshot of the heady days of the folk scene in Ireland in the 1970s and the 1980s, when the country seemed to be full of folk and ballad groups vying for a slice of the action. If ever the old adage of achieving overnight success after thirty years of hard graft applied to anybody, it surely applies to Charlie.