The Ireland anthology - Sen Dunne

'The Ireland Anthology' is the most ambitious one-volume anthology of Irish prose and poetry to appear in over thirty years. There are more than 200 separate entries, drawn from indigenous authors as well as from those who have visited the country, and covering the whole span of written Irish history. As a result, works by Jonathan Swift, Maria Edgeworth and W.B. Yeats are represented alongside authors as diverse as the medieval Welsh monk Giraldus Cambrensis and the French dandy Chevalier de La Tocnaye. There are also extracts from the works of distinguised contemporary writers like Seamus Heaney, Eavan Boland and Colm Toibin. Altogether this great Irish stew accommodates ingredients of all sorts in a happy mixture. Try a recipe for brown bread by Myrtle Allen, and delight in the description of an eighteenth-century garden by Mrs Delaney. For all who love Ireland, and especially its tradition of outstanding writing, this anthology is irresistible.