Kerrygold butter. The Dublin Spire. The Buntús Cainte booklet. The DeLorean sports car. All of these things are an indisputable part of Irish history, yet never quite made the school curriculum. Damian Corless uses his trademark wit to trawl through our past and capture fleeting moments on the way to modern Ireland. Old reliables like the Angelus Bell, the Aran sweater, the shillelagh and the Jack Charlton mug spring fresh surprises. This is a seriously entertaining ramble through an alter...

The name the Romans gave to Ireland was Hibernia, which means 'Land of Winter', and cold feet may have been a factor in their decision to leave the Irish to their own devices. The weather is our main topic of conversation and has done its bit in shaping our character. This lively overview shines a light on incidents when the weather – generally bad – changed the course of Ireland's history. Along the way it takes in those years – and there were quite a few – when the sun really didn't shin...

Before the 1970s flipped the switch to colour, Irish children ere raised in a world of black, white and an awful lot of grey. But kids, being kids, found endless ways to have fun. Do you remember Dáithí Lacha, Radio Caroline and holidays in Butlin's Mosney? Then this is the book for you! Damian Corless takes us on a tongue-in-cheek trip down memory lane to the age of Let's Draw With Bláithín, instant mashed potato and 'Yellow Submarine'. Set against a backdrop of the space race and the min...

Whether your taste was for fiddlestix or Flavour Ravers, Trigger bars or Two and Twos, Marathons or macaroons, Peggy's Legs or Push Pops, Liquorice Allsorts or Little Devils, You'll Ruin Your Dinner has something for you.From the heyday of Cleeve's toffee to the birth of the Tayto Cheese & Onion crisp, it transports us back to the days when sweet shop windows across the country boasted tempting confectionery displays, when summer was heralded with a visit from the ice-cream...

History is littered with amazing mistakes - from the fatal flight of Icarus to the famous meeting of HMS Titanic and an iceberg, many incredible events have been shaped by a simple mistake.Of course it would be a huge mistake to claim that Most Amazing Mistakes is THE definitive book on blunders. But there are examples of all sorts of them - some funny, others tragic; famous ones, trivial ones; no matter, they all share a common thread. They were events never mean...

THE SUNDAY TIMES-BESTSELLING BOOK BY ONE OF BRITAIN'S BEST-LOVED COMIC WRITERS**Pre-order now: David Mitchell's new book Dishonesty is the Second-best Policy**There are many aspects of modern life that trouble award-winning comedian David Mitchell, such as:Why is every film or TV programme a sequel or a remake?Why are people so f***ing hung up about swearing?Why do ...

VIVE LA REVOLUTION!Dolphins shed and replace their skin every two hoursPluto was named by an eleven-year-old schoolgirlA donkey's personality is called its donkeyshipFreud didn't lose his virginity until the age of 30The bastion that was QI has been stormed, elves have been put to the guillotine, the readers are in charge.After nine and a half years of cumulative reading time, readers of the QI App have selected the definitive Q...

An entertaining and surprising history of the world's most delectable treat, from a descendant of the Cadbury chocolate dynasty.**“Amazingly appealing … This is a delicious book, seductive as a tray of bonbons.” —**Washington PostIn the early nineteenth century the major English chocolate firms—Fry, Rowntree, and Cadbury—were all Quaker family enterprises that aimed to do well by doing good. The English chocolatiers introduced the ...

In 1795 three boys discovered the top of an ancient shaft on uninhabited Oak Island in Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia. The boys began to dig, and what they uncovered started the world's greatest and strangest treasure hunt but nobody knows what the treasure is. Two hundred years of courage, back-breaking effort, ingenuity, and engineering skills have failed to retrieve what is concealed there.Theories of what the treasure could be include Captain Kidd's bloodstained pirate gold, an army p...

This unique "fusion of science and the physical history" traces the story of the Scots through their DNA ( Sunday Herald).An almost limitless archive of our history lies hidden inside our bodies, and this book traces the ancient story of Scotland from that scientific viewpoint. The mushrooming of genetic studies, of DNA analysis, is rewriting history in spectacular fashion.In Scotland: A Genetic Journey, Alistair Moffat explores the history ...

The Third Book of General Ignorance gathers together 180 questions, both new and previously featured on the BBC TV programme's popular 'General Ignorance' round, and show why, when it comes to general knowledge, none of us knows anything at all.Who invented the sandwich? What was the best thing before sliced bread? Who first ate frogs' legs? Which cat never changes its spots? What did Lady Godiva do? What can you legally do if you come across a Welshman in Chester...

This is Eileen’s story, one of five stories extracted from THE SWEETHEARTS.Whether in wartime or peace, tales of love, laughter and hardship from the girls in the Rowntrees factory in Yorkshire.“Eileen’s dad worked at the Rowntree’s factory loading cocoa beans into the grinding mills; it was hard physical work, but he was a tall and powerful figure and very fit. Eileen was only five when war broke out and her dad went away, and was just nine years old when he came back from ...