As a terrible storm rages, ten-year-old Dinah and her brother and sister listen to their cousin Gage's tale of a newly-hatched, orphaned, skibberee, or tooth fairy, called What-the-Dickens, who hopes to find a home among the skibbereen tribe, if only he can stay out of trouble.

The profile of prisoners across many Western countries is strikingly similar – 95% male, predominantly undereducated and underemployed, from the most deprived neighbourhoods. This book reflects on how similarly positioned men configure masculinities against global economic shifts that have seen the decimation of traditional, manual-heavy industry and with it the disruption of long-established relations of labour. Drawing on life history interviews and classical ethnography, the book charts a group of men’s experiences pre, during and post prison. Tracking the development of masculinities from childhood to adulthood, across impoverished streets, ‘failing’ schools and inadequate state ‘care’, the book questions whether this proved better preparation for serving prison time than working in their local, service-dominated, labour markets. It integrates theories of crime, geography, economics and masculinity to take into account structural and global economic shifts as well as individual long-term perspectives in order to provide a broad examination on pathways to prison and post prison.

This thoroughly funny memoir proves that life's tragedies and challenges should never defeat our sense of humor. Whether it is in a happy breakfast with Geraldine Ferraro, an unfriendly lunch with Clarence Thoms, or a grim tete-a-tete with Pope Benedict XVI Maguire finds the fun in life and shares it with us in these hilarious pages.

The lives of Mark and Zoe started very routinely and they lived their early years as all other brothers and sisters do. When they reached college, major changes were cast upon them and their lives took on a meaning totally unlike any others. They transcended into adult life with many different concepts to deal with, including a tragic family crisis that pitted them alone against the challenges of life. Fortunately, they had been reared in an environment that was totally based on reality and not based on fanciful moral standards. Mark and Zoe came to embody how beautiful it would be to live, love and learn with the same mate from birth to death.

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