The Siege of Krishnapur, the second of Farrell’s Empire Trilogy, won the Booker Prize in 1973, and it was selected as one of only six previous winners to compete in the 2008 international ‘Best of Booker’ competition. The strength of American interest in Farrell’s books is underlined by the inclusion of all three Trilogy novels in the Classics imprint of the New York Review of Books.

Many of these selected letters are written to women whom Jim Farrell loved and whom he inadvertently hurt. His ambition to be a great writer in an age of minimal author’s earnings ruled out the expense of marriage and fatherhood, so self-sufficiency was his answer. Books Ireland has astutely portrayed him as ‘a mystery wrapped in an enigma, a man who wanted solitude and yet did not want it, wanted love but feared commitment, reached out again and again but, possibly through fear of rejection, was always the first to cut the cord.’ But Farrell’s kindness, deft humour and gift for friendship reached across rejection, which must account for why so many such letters were kept.

Funny, teasing, anxious and ambitious, these previously unpublished letters to a wide range of friends give the reader a glimpse of this private man. Ranging from childhood to the day before his death, Farrell’s distinctive letters have the impact of autobiography.

A major revision of this pioneering work which aims to increase understanding and appreciation of the landscape as an important element of national heritage, and to provide a much needed basis for an understanding of landscape conservation and planning.

The Atlas of Irish Rural Landscape has harnessed the expertise of dozens of specialists to produce an exciting and pioneering study which has two basic aims:  to increase understanding and appreciation of the landscape as an important element of national heritage and to provide a much needed basis for landscape conservation and planning.

The complex assemblages of features, physical and human, which gives landscapes their distinctive regional character are examined in relation to man-made elements, such as  field and settlement patterns, enclosure methods, rural buildings, demesnes, villages and small towns, archaeological/historical monuments, woodland, bogs, communications, and industrial archaeology. Essentially cartographic in approach,  supplemented by diagrams, photographs, paintings and explanatory text the Atlas gathers this huge range of information into an accessible, informative and visually stunning book suitable for any school, college or home.

It is hoped that while of academic and educational value, the Atlas of the Irish Rural Landscape has a significant practical and applied dimension. It is concerned with contemporary changes in the landscape resulting from developments in agriculture, forestry, bog exploitation, tourism, housing, urban expansion, and various other forces, and proposes ways in which necessary change can be carried out in sympathy with valued landscape features.