SOLD Ireland in colour

 

SOLD

Ex-library. Mint condition. HB. 256pp. $35 including postage anywhere in Australia.

Glossy print. Colour photos throughout.

Amazon is also selling this book for over $100.

The real Mrs Brown

 

Excellent condition. PB. 295pp. $18 including postage anywhere in Australia.

The bestselling authorised biography of Brendan O'Carroll, based on extensive interviews Brian Beacom conducted with the hugely popular star of Mrs Brown's Boys.

Who'd have thought a potty-mouthed Dublin mammy with a cream cardigan and elasticated tan tights could storm British TV screens and leave a nation helpless with laughter?

Brendan O'Carroll performs to tens of thousands of people a night in packed-out stadiums across the country. In the last four years, his TV show has become a No.1 ratings success and he's even making a movie.

But Brendan has had to battle hard for success. The youngest of eleven children, his mother was Maureen O'Carroll, a former nun who went on to become the first woman to be elected to the Irish parliament. Brendan adored his strong, widowed mother - and she later became the inspiration for his indomitable character Agnes Brown.

However, the family endured poverty reminiscent of Angela's Ashes and Brendan saw no option but to leave school at 12 to work. He married young and for decades struggled to make ends meet. Eventually, bankrupt and desperate, Brendan went to see a fortune teller who told him she could see his future achieving worldwide success as a comedian and actor. At first Brendan laughed at the notion, but then he thought of how much his friends loved his gags, and decided to give it a go...

This is the magical story of how a loveable Irishman with a wig and a wit as caustic as battery acid surprised everyone - most of all himself - by becoming one of the best-loved comedians in the world.

It is a story of hardship, heartbreak, and talent and will remind readers afresh that sometimes the facts can be even more extraordinary than the fiction.

About the Author

Brendan O'Carroll was born in Dublin in 1955, the youngest of eleven children. He left school aged twelve and over the years worked in a variety of jobs before turning to stand-up comedy in his forties.

Since then the father-of-three has become a bestselling novelist and is now one of the world's most successful comedians. Brian Beacom is an award-winning entertainment writer at the Herald and Times group of newspapers based in Glasgow. He has written four books and two plays.

Biography of songs from one of world's legendary rock bands

 

Mint condition. PB. 192pp. $20 including postage anywhere in Australia.

Featuring original and revealing interviews with band members and key people close to them, and tracing the band's meteroic rise from the early days to a group that has galvanized the pop music scene for more than twenty years, Stories Behind The Songs explores the background and inspiration behind every song written by U2, and is the definitive text on the subject. 

As testament to the band's enduring popularity, a full twenty-four years after the release of their first album, "Boy", in 1980, U2 hit Number 1 on both sides of the Atlantic with "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb", selling a million copies in three weeks. 

The first single from that album, "Vertigo" won three Grammys. 

U2 remains in every sense a world-class rock 'n' roll band, and this book takes you into the heart of the group, to reveal the inspiration behind their music.

About the author

Niall Stokes is the award-winning editor of the long-running fortnightly Ireland music and political magazine Hot Press based in Dublin . He has edited the magazine since 1977. He has been a longstanding champion of Irish music, most famously U2 in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s. He was involved with The Music Show, an exhibition of the Irish music industry held in the RDS in October 2008. He was Chairman of the Independent Radio and Television Commission (now the BCI) between 1993 and 1998.

SOLD Essays on Irish history in one volume

 

SOLD

Rare book. Ex-library. Immaculate condition. PB. 248pp. $35 including postage anywhere in Australia.

Was there an Irish Revolution, and - if so - what kind of revolution was it? What motivated revolutionaries and those who supported them? How was the war fought and ended? What have been the repercussions for unionists, women and modern Irish politics?

These questions are here addressed by leading historians of the period through both detailed assessments of specific incidents and wide-ranging analysis of key themes. The Irish Revolution, 1913-1923 provides the most up-to-date answers to, and debate on, the fundamental questions relating to this formative period in Irish history.

Clear coverage of the historiography and a detailed chronology make this book ideal for classroom use. The Irish Revolution is essential reading for students and scholars of modern Ireland, and for all those interested in the study of revolution.