Warner’s love of food in all its variety and versatility greatly enlivens his provocative, most entertaining book. He argues that healthy eating involves moderate consumption of a wide range of foods. The odd treat – a bag of crisps, a biscuit – does us no harm. The bag of chips that rounds off a jolly…
Our economies may be in recovery, but they are far from healthy, warns Bill Emmott, who writes with the authority and assurance of a former editor-in-chief of The Economist. He believes that the most insidious of the ‘enemies that lie within’ is the swollen, still largely unregulated financial services sector, that was responsible for the…
Independents in Irish Party Democracy by Liam Weeks (Manchester University Press, £80) Michael O’Leary once dismissed them as “local lunatics”, but UCC political scientist Liam Weeks takes a more favourable view of our independent TDs, in a thorough and well-informed book. He begins in Kerry on count night in February 2016 when independents and brothers Michael…
The Catholics: The Church and its People in Britain and Ireland, from the Reformation and the Present Day by Roy Hattersly (Chatto & Windus, £ 25.00) Roy Hattersley, a former MP and Minister in Britain, prefaces his congenial history with a fascinating autobiographical fragment in which he recalls the ease with which his father could translate…
Inside the Monkey House: My Time as an Irish Prison Officer by John Cuffe (Collins Press, € 12.99) John Cuffe dealt with some of the most depraved and violent people in this country during his 30 years as a prison officer, between 1978 and 2007. During his long years in Arbour Hill, where the worst…
A Single Headstrong Heart by Kevin Myers (Lilliput Press, € 20.00) On the cover of this affecting, beautifully-written memoir is a photograph of young Kevin Myers, a parrot on his shoulder; beside him, smiling cautiously, is his father Willie, who was a GP. They were on their way to the Cup Final at Wembley when…
Living – and dying – under a black flag The Raqqa Diaries: Escape from Islamic State by Samer, edited by Mike Thomson (Hutchinson, £9.99) In almost unbearably graphic prose, Samer – a pseudonym – describes a place in which atrocities are everyday, and life barely tolerable. Children walk to school past crucifixes from which decapitated…
The Catholics: The Church and its People in Britain and Ireland, from the Reformation to the Present Day by Roy Hattersley (Chatto and Windus, £25.00) Roy Hattersley prefaces his congenial history with a fascinating autobiographical fragment in which he recalls the ease with which his father could translate Latin inscriptions during their frequent visits to…
A Field Guide to Lies and Statistics: A Neuroscientist on How to Make Sense of a Complex World by Daniel Levitin (Viking. £12.99 / €17) Exposure to misinformation is part of the human condition. Some – Levitin calls them ‘lying weasels’ – will bend the truth in order to persuade us to buy something or…
Dirty Secrets: What To Do About Tax Havens by Richard Murphy (Verso, £12.99) Tax avoidance is one of the greatest difficulties besetting the world economy. Accountant and tax campaigner Richard Murphy estimates that 10% – maybe more – of the world’s wealth is hidden away in tax havens. Taxed, the secreted trillions would provide more…