'She was . . . marvellous' GUARDIAN 'I admired many authors. But Molly, I loved' DIANA ATHILL 'Keane's distinctive blend of elegant savagery and deep affection' EVENING STANDARD To Ballinrath House, where purple bog gives way to slate-coloured mountains, comes Allan to visit his Irish cousins. No sooner has he arrived than he falls in love with Cousin Ann, though it seems that she only has eyes for Captain Dennys St Lawrence.

BY THE AUTHOR SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE INTRODUCED BY POLLY DEVLIN 'Psychologically sharp, socially knowing and closely knit' IRISH TIMES 'She was . . . marvellous' GUARDIAN 'A writer of genius' WALL STREET JOURNAL One glorious gothic mansion - Garonlea - and two rather different ladies who would be Queen . . . Lady Charlotte French-McGrath has successfully ruled over her family with a rod of iron until the arrival of Cynthia: beautiful, young, talented, selfish - and engaged to her son Desmond. When Cynthia enters the Jazz Age, on the surface her life passes in a whirl of hunting, drinking and romance. But the ghosts of Garonlea are only biding their time: they know the source of their power, a secret handed on from one generation to the next.

Vinogradoff, Sir Paul. Villainage in England: Essays in English Mediaeval History. Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, 1892. xii, 464 pp. Reprint available December, 2004 by The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. ISBN 1-58477-477-0. Cloth. $95. * This classic study was highly regarded by Maitland and Holdsworth. An unsigned article in the Encyclopaedia Britannica (11th. ed.) said it is "perhaps the most important book written on the peasantry of the feudal age and the village community in England; it can only be compared for value with F.W. Maitland's Domesday Book and Beyond." (28:100). Vinogradoff [1854-1925] argues that the Norman-era villain was the direct descendent of the Anglo-Saxon freeman, so the typical Anglo-Saxon settlement was a free community rather than a manor. An impressive work of original scholarship and synthesis, it "shed a wholly new light on the social and legal aspects of the institution of villainage.": Holdsworth, The Historians of English Law 86.

First published in 1933 when the author was still writing under the name of M.J. Farrell it is a celebration of the joys of hunting, point-to-point, fishing and shooting in Ireland. To those who take part it is a way of life, indeed a religion in itself and born and bred to the life, the author captures its unique character.