"...fascinatingly quirky" - Gráinne Murphy, author of Winter People
We all have someone in our lives who will find huge pleasure in this collection. Most are flash-length entries and arranged thematically, it is ideal to dip into daily and treat yourself to a word with your elevenses or a theme over lunch.
It covers a range of life issues from the simple to the complex, in a tongue-in-cheek way (think old-style newspaper column, or Susie Dent with a dad-jokes filter switched on), referencing everything from The Shawshank Redemption to AI to the illusion of freedom in choosing a Netflix movie. The words themselves are often the entry point to fascinatingly quirky digressions – whether Jesus was in fact a ghost, the public bins in Athlone town, the arrangement of pubs in Maynooth. Particular favourites that made me laugh out loud were 'dilettante', for the line, 'teaching is more of a nixer really' and 'bibelot', which sees our man encouraging the children to be bold in the hopes that Santy will bring coal – at €42 a bag, he has a point.
Gráinne Murphy,
Author of Winter People, Ghostlights and Where the Edge Is
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