Biography &Memoir
An Unsung Hero
Tom Crean – Antarctic Survivor Michael Smith Gill Books €19.99
Twenty years after its publication, the definitive biography of Tom Crean hits the bookshelves once again, recounting the story of the country’s mostrenowned polar explorer from his boyhood in Dingle, Co. Kerry to his white knuckle adventures in the Antarctic serving with both Captain Robert Scott and Ernest Shackleton. This handsome edition, liberally illustrated with black and white imagery of Crean’s life and times, combines his own writings, the works of his contemporaries and the recollections of his surviving family to give the reader an insight and appreciation of this unique and up until recently, largely unsung hero.
Constellations Reflections from Life Sinead Gleeson Picador €14.99
Powerful collection of essays and winner of the Irish Book Awards non-fiction book of the year. Incisive, observational and highly personal, the essays cover a variety of the author’s experience of bone disease and cancer treatment, pregnancy, motherhood and death.
Overcoming Vicky Phelan with Naomi Linehan Hachette €14.99
Cervical cancer survivor and campaigner Vicky Phelan recounts her plucky David and Goliath struggle against the HSE, the medical establishment and the government to lift the lid on the smear test scandal, press for reform and for compensation for herself and other women shortchanged by the screening process and the current system of open disclosures for doctors.
I Love The Bones Of You Christopher Eccleston
S&S€20.30
The actor’s book prompted headlines because he writes of his struggle with anorexia but it is about so much more, particularly his relationship with his father, which has shaped his entire career. A million miles from the usual celebrity memoir.
Catch And Kill Ronan Farrow Fleet €20.99
Journalist Farrow documents the extraordinary year in which he persuaded woman after woman to document allegations that movie mogul Harvey Weinstein had raped, abused, intimidated and assaulted them. Riveting and shocking.
Double Crossed Brian Wood Virgin €21.99
Brian Wood won the military cross for his actions with the British army in Iraq yet after the war, while suffering from PTSD, he was wrongly accused of war crimes and hounded by unscrupulous lawyers.
Ghostland Edward Parnell William Collins€23.99
Parnell visits the places in the these islands associated with the authors of his favourite ghost stories, supernatural TV series and horror films while weaving in personal memoir. A wonderful memoir, hauntingly different.
Unfollow Megan Phelps-Roper riverrun €17.99
The Westboro Baptist Church is the extreme religious sect notorious for picketing military funerals and public events with signs bearing slogans such as ‘God hates fags’. Former member Phelps-Roper tells how she saw the light and left.
Everybody Died, So I Got A Dog Emily Dean Hodder & Stoughton €18.99
Writer and radio presenter Emily Dean lost her parents and her older sister within a short space of time, then tried to assuage her grief by getting a dog. A funny-sad tale of love, loss and pets.
A Marvelous Life Danny Fingeroth S&S €21.30
The late Stan Lee was a comic book ideas man who invented or helped create many of the superheroes – including Spider-Man and Iron Man – who populate the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a money-printing entertainment franchise.
Fingeroth tells how the son of poor immigrant parents became such a powerhouse of popular culture.
Homing Jon Day John Murray€23.99
A compelling blend of personal memoir, nature writing and popular science, Day’s book considers the humble pigeon, probably our oldest companion species. A pigeon fancier himself, he also draws on the views of biologists, philosophers, poets – and a pest-control expert.