This story was a rather good one to me, the way a typical story should go, a bad guy, the helpless first victims,the at first clueless good guy but then he always destroys the evil one. And that is exactly how it goes with the evil step mother (Aoife) jealous of how much time her new husband (King Lir) spends with his kids instead of her so he turns her into swans! But that is all I can tell you, I don't want to ruin the ending but let me say I think they need a NEW ending.

On a recent trip to England, I found a yellowed paged, soft cover copy of The Leaves On Grey in a book cupboard at the National Trust cottage where I was staying. I was captured immediately with the first two lines "This is a strange story. As I've just returned from seeing Liam I must go back to the beginning to tell where I think it all started, to try to shape events in a way you might understand." As I read, I felt I was sitting in a pub sharing a brew with Desmond Hogan as he told me his story. We journeyed through what it was like to be coming of age in upper class Ireland during the 1950's. How friends and events occurring when we are in our twenties deeply effect us as we make our way through the rest of life. Recent Irish history is splashed throughout as a background to the overall events. Mr Hogan's words are rich, and he paints a vivid picture. You share in his delight and feel troubled and confused as he questions the direction his live takes compared to that of his friends. You can understand the love he shares with these friends and loss he experiences as each follows their given path. I highly recommend this 119 page book, if you can find a copy. The journey is timeless, it is a story played out from generation to generation as we search for our place in this world. When we finished our brew, I smiled at Desmond Hogan and thanked him for sharing his journey with me. On closing the door to the pub I knew I had found a new friend, and knew I would seek out his other works.

As a historian specializing in Philip II's reign (and, funny enough, as a hobby author just trying my hand at a historical novel featuring Philip and his relationship to Ana de Mendoza when I discovered this book) I was naturally curious what insights "That Lady" would give on topics historians have always argued about (like the Escovedo affair). And I was pleasantly surprised - it's a wonderful read AND aims at the utmost historical correctness possible without letting that dry up its author's imagination. Straightforward style, absolutely credible characters and strong feelings without kitsch make this book the perfect start for, say, people who saw Verdi's "Don Carlos" at the opera and want to know more about the people featuring in it. Given that research on Philip II is still sometimes recurring to legends and prejudices because the truth simply can't be found out anymore, Kate O'Brien's approach to this period in Spanish history and to Philip's character is as true as any and probably fairer than a professional historian's. So if you are looking for a colourful and psychologically fascinating historical novel - this one's what you've always wanted!

I recently found a list of the winners of the Hawthornden prize, which is awarded annually to an English writer "for the best work of imaginative literature." This book, by Kate O'Brien (1897-1974), won the prize for 1931. Since most of the Hawthornden prizewinners I have read (only 9 so far) have been good reading, I decided to read this. On balance it tells an interesting story and holds one's attention well. It is laid in Ireland of the 1870s and concerns an upper-class Irish Catholic family, the "proper" members of which are portrayed in a somewhat unfavorable light. The "rebel" members of the family get most of the attention in the book, as I suppose one would expect in a novel. I do not regret reading the book, and would read more by Kate O'Brien if I ran across such.