As the twentieth century draws to a close, Ireland in Writing: Interviews with Writers and Academics focuses on the textual mapping of the country over the century through the creative energies and intellectual reflections of a selection of writers and educators at the tertiary level. The volume is a collection of eleven interviews held by three university teachers and a research assistant, all resident in Spain. The interviews with both male and female writers and academics, who hail from Northern Ireland and the Republic, have been conducted over the 1990s. The writers were quizzed about their own writing: how it came into being, who or what they have looked to as inspirational and how their novels, short stories, poetry and plays relate to Ireland past and present. The academics express views on their critical theories and practices, on particular areas of interest, on English and Irish in Ireland, on contemporary writing and cultural dynamics: from Friel to Telefís Éireann, passing through Field Day, the Abbey and the question of a hybrid Irish identity.

Though widely lauded as one of the most creative and challenging forces in Irish theatre Frank McGuinness’s plays have often met with a tempestuous reception. This new work details the significance of key productions of his plays in the context of Ireland’s culture and society. Charting McGuinness’s development as a dramatist from The Factory Girls through to Gates of Gold it combines cultural, political and theatrical analysis to position McGuinness as the most significant Irish playwright of his generation. Textual analysis supports considerations of theatrical performance to show how visual art, stagecraft, sculpture and song are central to our understanding of McGuinness’s theatre. Drawing forth the range of sexual, familial and national identities found in McGuinness’s work this book shows the significance of symbols in theatre that often seeks to confuse the simplicities of absolutes in order to show the complexities of difference. Wide-ranging, theoretically astute and written in a lucid and engaging style, Celebrating Confusion will appeal to all readers who are interested in Irish Theatre and its intersection with the politics and culture of contemporary Ireland.

Most of the essays in Ritual Remembering: History, Myth and Politics in Anglo-Irish Drama, in part or in whole, frequently allude or directly concern themselves with the dramatic representation of the opposition or the collusion of myth and history, and the uses and abuses of both. Equally they celebrate and critically analyse the politics of the social conscience and social consciousness which pervades Irish drama in its rituals of forgetfulness and memory. Perhaps myth is above all to be understood as the conscience and consciousness of history; and politics is the projection of that myth into present social action - on the hustings (nowadays more frequently the television hustings), at the ballot box, in writing and on the stage. Most of the articles in this volume revolve around these gravely portentous and ambivalent themes, which nobody who is as much concerned with Anglo-Irish relations as with Anglo-Irish literature can disregard or evade.

A Scottish lost treasures collection of three classic 'Kailyard' novels, each offering a superbly plotted and descriptive narrative. Bundled by subject matter rather than author, the books create a compelling trilogy. "Palimpsest's eClassics series, Scottish Lost Treasures, shows us how much poorer Britain's cultural heritage would be without Scottish writers ... The best example I've seen of how curation and presentation can bring old books to new audiences" - The Observer "This strikes me as a fantastic venture, and one I hope will expand further" - Professor Willy Maley, University of Glasgow, Scotland on Sunday

A heart warming collection of tales from a bygone age; The Distant Scene vividly re-creates the characters from Fred Archer’s youth.