April 2024
-
Book Review and Commentary: The Letters of Scott Fitzgerald
The Letters of Scott Fitzgerald, Edited by Andrew Turnbull, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1963 Reading the letters of F Scott Fitzgerald is like eavesdropping on a private conversation as the unseen listener, where nothing is censored except a reference here and there to an individual that might offend. Fitzgerald’s letters offer a highly intimate unguarded glimpse into his personal life and relationships and reveal his deep bond with his only child his daughter “Scottie,” whom he sometimes addresses […] Read More
-
You Know You Love Them!
I assume I speak for anyone reading this page that potatoes are your favorite side! I grew up loving potatoes, but when I first visited Ireland in 1984 I was surprised to find not one but possibly two or three types of potatoes offered with my meals. And guess what, I think I ate them all! In my newest cookbook, Delicious Ireland, you’ll find lots of recipes for potato side dishes in the chapter “Mash & […] Read More
-
“Prophet Song” … a Wakeup Call for All Who Listen
This book, winner of one of the literary world’s most prestigious awards—the 2023 Booker Prize for the “best piece of English language fiction published in the United Kingdom and Ireland in a given year” —is my first introduction to the Irish writer Paul Lynch. For some readers, Lynch’s depiction of a society unravelling under a totalitarian government in the Republic of Ireland—is a figment of a wild imagination; for others tuned in to our changing […] Read More