In the sixteenth century, as it is now, the Burren, on the western seaboard of Ireland, was a land of grey stone forts, fields of rich green grass and swirling mountain terraces. It was also home to an independent kingdom that lived peacefully by the ancient Brehon laws of their forebears.On the first eve of May, 1509, hundreds of people from the Burren climbed the gouged out limestone terraces of Mullaghmore Mountain to celebrate the great May Day festival, lighting a bonfire and ...

It’s 1923 and London is a whirl of jazz, dancing and parties. Violet, Daisy, Poppy and Rose Derrington are desperate to be part of it, but stuck in an enormous crumbling house in the country, with no money and no fashionable dresses, the excitement seems a lifetime away.Luckily the girls each have a plan for escaping their humdrum country life: Rose wants to be a novelist, Poppy a jazz musician and Daisy a famous film director. Violet, however, has only one ambition: to become the ...

Secrets, intrigue, and meddling in love – I Was Jane Austen's Best Friend by Cora Harrison is a historical romantic comedy, perfect for fans of Bridgerton.Jane says that if I am to be the heroine of this story, something will throw a hero in my way . . .I Was Jane Austen's Best Friend is the secret diary of Jenny Cooper, Jane Austen’s teenage friend and confidante. Their evenings are a blur of beautiful dresses, balls, go...

In 1509, in the kingdom of the Burren, people lived according to the ancient customs and Brehon laws of their ancestors.The Michaelmas Fair: a time for trade and celebration. A chance for the people of the Burren to gather, buy and sell their wares and give tribute to the lord of their clans. When the steward of the MacNamara clan demands more, tempers run high.Then the steward’s body is found in the local churchyard; he’s been beaten to death. Was it revenge, greed or some...

This book suggests crime fiction is now the most relevant and valid form of writing which can deal with modern Ireland in terms of the post-'Troubles' landscape and post-Celtic Tiger economic boom. The book takes a chapter by chapter approach with each chapter and author discussing a different facet of Irish crime writing for example, Declan Hughes discusses the influence of American culture on Irish crime writing and Tana French reflects on crime fiction and the post-Celtic Tiger Irish id...

'To shoot a man on the spur of the moment in the presence of the king and his court, not to mention the cardinal and his household, that took a boldness … Or utter despair.' - Hampton Court, 1522Lawyer Hugh Mac Egan has arrived from Ireland to draw up the marriage contract between James Butler, son of his employer the Earl of Ormond, and Anne Boleyn – a dynastic alliance that will resolve an age-old inheritance dispute. But Anne, it seems,...

Mystery, rumours and scandals abound in Jane Austen Stole My Boyfriend from Cora Harrison, a historical romantic comedy perfect for fans of Bridgerton.A little mystery is so becoming in a hero, don't you think?Jane wants to meet a hero worthy of her extraordinary imagination: a gentleman who is dashing and daring and handsome and brave; who can dance like a viscount and duel like a king. Jane and Jenny are whiling away the social ...

It’s 1924. Leaving their beloved Beech Grove Manor to go to London for the season, Poppy and Daisy Derrington know that they must shine as debutantes.Since a girl cannot inherit her father's estate, the sisters have to marry well or face being left penniless.But it’s not money or marriage that interests them. It’s music, cinema, literature, fashion, parties, love – everything that is shiny and new. Trapped by the dusty traditions of their class, Daisy and Poppy must choose ...

The autumn has come to the Burren - a time of harvest, of gathering for the winter to come, the end of summer for most and the end of life for others.When Mara attends the funeral of a local priest of the Burren, the last things she expects is the corpse ofa man stung to death by bees, found on the church steps. Sorley the silversmith was a greedy and distrusted man. There would be no shortage of people who wanted him dead but who really stood to profit from his murder?...

When Inspector Field shows his friend Charles Dickens the body of a young woman dragged from the River Thames, he cannot have foreseen that the famous author would immediately recognise the victim as Isabella Gordon, a housemaid he had tried to help through his charity. Nor that Dickens and his fellow writer Wilkie Collins would determine to find out who killed her. Led on by fragments of a journal discovered by Isabella's friend Sesina, the two men track the murdered girl's journeys from ...

An unforgettable new female detective bursts onto the audio scene in this historical mystery series set in 1920’s Ireland, featuring the Reverend Mother Aquinas. Read by Audie award-winning narrator Rosalyn Landor.A dead body washed up after a flood dressed in evening finery is not a sight often seen in the slums of Cork city, Ireland.When Reverend Mother Aquinas discovers the body at the gate of the convent chapel she teams up with former pupil, Police Sergeant Patrick Cas...

"Bestselling novelist Cora Harrison's light historical romance in the form of a secret diary was inspired by real life events in the Austen family and will delight Jane Austen fans everywhere. When fifteen-year-old Jane Austen's shy cousin Jenny comes to stay, their evenings are a blur of beautiful dresses, balls, gossip and romance; their days are spend writing about them - Jenny in her diary, Jane in her witty first attempts at fiction. When Jenny falls utterly in love with a handsome na...