Larks' EggsDesmond Hogan is one of most remarkable literary talents to have come out of Ireland in the past half century. Larks Eggs affirms that stature. Here, with twenty two classic stories taken from earlier collections and twelve fresh narratives, Hogan displays anew his lyricism, compassion and sheer prismatic brilliance. His subject is exile and self image, explored through isolates and eccentrics, brittle lives trapped by poverty, personal histories and

Promises to Keep is the story of one couple’s medical nightmare

the scarab beetle pushing its ball of clay before it

to the garrison towns of Athy

Other figures emerge in rich colour: the ploughman

socio-economic change

and Trinity College

Irish Independent \n \nABOUT THE AUTHOR \n \nMaurice Craig (1919-2011) was born in Belfast and educated in Dalkey and Shrewsbury

it recounts a peripatetic childhood during which the family moved between Strabane

historian and writer

in which the Office of Public Works

almost mystical level of involvement

Connemara after the Famine’