"This is a book for fans of New Orleans, of the universal ball game, of ex-pats and of pubs. Score 10-nil for Rea and the McCools."--The Irish American Post"Rea's book brings one of the biggest stories of the century down to a touching, emotional, personal level in a solid debut effort."--Phil Schoen, GolTV commentatorAfter jetting around the world, Stephen Rea left Belfast to settle in New Orleans in 2004. Life in the Deep South proved to be startlingly different from that...

Seamus Deane combined academic rigour with an expressive style that was characterised by both passion and commitment. Without losing any scholarly precision or acuity, he succeeded in engaging broader audiences in some of the key debates of his time. These included: the role of culture in creating political structures and conflict; the responsibility of artists, particularly writers, to articulate alternatives; and the need to think beyond Northern Ireland's political stalemate and imagine...

An entertaining, heartwarming memoir detailing the adventures and valuable life lessons learned from the author’s four decades of friendship with Ozzy Osbourne and the Osbourne family.Stephen Rea was born in Northern Ireland in 1969, the same year “The Troubles” began. Violence was everywhere. His grandmother was nearly killed when gunmen opened fire on the wrong house, leaving young Stephen to pick at the bullet holes in the walls. He found refuge from this turmoi...

In 2004, Belfast-born Stephen Rea moved to New Orleans, a city where "football" means something entirely different than what it does back home. After struggling to find a place to watch European soccer games, Rea discovered Finn McCool's pub and its mixed clientele of good-humored European ex-pats, charismatic New Orleanians, and assorted matchless personalities. Before long he was playing on the pub's motley over-thirty-five fledgling soccer team. Gathered at the bar on August 27, 2005, m...

For the Summer 2018 World Cup, the ultimate book for soccer fans around the globe!The world will be riveted by the globe’s greatest sporting event in summer of 2018 (more than 27 million Americans watched the final game of the last tournament in Brazil). The 2018 edition will bring the sports’s greatest stars together, but who will take home the trophy?favorites Germany, France, Brazil, Argentina? Or a surprise?Belgium, Mexico, Portugal, or Colombia? And why is the...

William Barrow finds himself in lonely retirement in West Cork. Once an internationally renowned pianist, a terrible skin disease has attacked his hands and made it impossible for him to perform.Tara is a piano teacher with barely enough pupils to pay the month's rent. In the local café, the elegant writing of a job advertisement catches her eye: 'WANTED. HOUSEKEEPER.'She begins to work in William's house, keeping to herself the knowledge that they have met three times befo...

A comprehensive collection of classic works from some of Ireland’s finest authors, adapted as full-cast BBC radio dramasIreland has a long tradition of storytelling, from ancient myths and mediaeval folk tales to 21st century bestsellers, Nobel Prize laureates and Booker Prize winners. Though small in size, the country has produced an extraordinary array of influential, groundbreaking writers who have shaped the literary landscape worldwide.This extensive a...

Bloomsbury presents The Library of Traumatic Memory by Neil Jordan, read by Stephen Rea.The first literary science fiction novel from Neil Jordan, visionary director of The Company of Wolves and Interview with the VampireIn a windswept corner of a forgotten peninsula, love and loss echo through the halls of a mansion built on secrets. Here memory is currency of the future, and the past refuses to stay buried.In the year 20...

A collection of full-cast dramatisations of Sophocles’ finest Greek tragediesOne of the three great tragic playwrights of ancient Greece, Sophocles wrote over 120 plays during his 60-year career, though only seven survive today. The most famous of these are the Theban Plays, all three of which are included in this collection alongside adaptations of Electra and Philoctetes, brought to life by celebrated writers, poets, and playwrights....

An entertaining, heartwarming memoir detailing the adventures and valuable life lessons learned from the author’s four decades of friendship with Ozzy Osbourne and the Osbourne family.Stephen Rea was born in Northern Ireland in 1969, the same year “The Troubles” began. Violence was everywhere. His grandmother was nearly killed when gunmen opened fire on the wrong house, leaving young Stephen to pick at the bullet holes in the walls. He found refuge from this turmoi...

An entertaining, heartwarming memoir detailing the adventures and valuable life lessons learned from the author’s four decades of friendship with Ozzy Osbourne and the Osbourne family.Stephen Rea was born in Northern Ireland in 1969, the same year “The Troubles” began. Violence was everywhere. His grandmother was nearly killed when gunmen opened fire on the wrong house, leaving young Stephen to pick at the bullet holes in the walls. He found refuge from this turmoi...

Broadcaster Matthew Sweet presents a sequence of radio plays by Samuel Beckett, with star casts including Stephen Rea and Ian McKellenSamuel Beckett captured the pathos and irony of modern life like no other dramatist. In the decade following the success of Waiting for Godot (1952), he wrote some of his most absorbing work for radio, among them this sequence of short pieces. Suffused with the same musicality as his stage plays, they are increasingly differ...