IT's that time of year again when publishers' thoughts turn lightly to the spring sales campaigns. Marino Books are on something of a health kick, with Dynamic Health, by David Hegarty (January, £6.99), a method for shedding those extra pounds put on over Christmas by means of something called yogametrics; Hep-C: Niamh's Story, by Fergal Bowers (February, £5.99), an emotive account of the Hepatitis-C controversy; and Be Safe, by David Harvey (March, £5.99), a manual on personal safety and the security of property. The Geraldine Conspiracy, by Anne Chambers (January, £7.99), is a historical novel set in 16th-century Ireland.
From Mercier Press comes The Days of the Servant Boy, by Liam O'Donnell (January, £7.99), an account of the time of the hiring fairs in Ireland; Irish Sagas, edited by Myles Dillon (February, £7.99), an introduction to the prose tales of ancient Ireland; The Wrong Man, by Danny Morrison (February, £7.99), a political novel set in present-day Northern Ireland; A Book of Irish Insults, by Sean McMahon (February, £6.99), at which, apparently, we excel; and the Collected Short Stories by John B. Keane (February, £7.99).
An extensive list as usual from Gill & Macmillan, including Michael Collins: In His Own Words, edited by Frank Costello (January, £8.99), the career of the Big Fellow in edited extracts from his writings, speeches, letters and memoranda; Holding The Line: An Autobiography, by Sir John Hermon (February, £16.99), the life story of the former Chief Constable of the RUC; Irish Potato Cookbook, by Eveleen Coyle (March, £3.99), recipes using the great Irish staple - for everyone who loves a spud; Irish Fairy Tales, by Padraic O'Farrell (March, £3.99), traditional, rather than the ones we read in the newspapers nowadays; Irish Folk Songs by Bill Meek (March, £3.99), roughly fifty of them with basic musical notation; and Cycle Touring Ireland, by Brendan Walsh (March, £6.99), the standard work by the sheriff of the city of Dublin - I wonder what happened to his horse?
Cork University Press have Sex, Nation and Dissent in Irish writing, edited by Eibhear Walshe (February, £40/£16.95), a collection of essays on the work of Irish gay and lesbian writers; From Civil Rights to Armalites: Derry and the Birth of the Irish Troubles, by Niall O Dochartaig (February, £40/£15.95), which examines political change in Derry from 1968 to 1972; and Visual Politics: The Representation of Ireland, 1750-1930, by Fintan Cullen (March, £24.95), a challenging interpretation of Irish subject matter in painting, with the focus on the interaction of art and politics.
Poetry from Dedalus Press: The Voice of the Hare, by Padraig J. Daly (April, £9.95/£5.95), a new collection exploring questions of nature and God; Christ, with Urban Fox, by John F. Deane (April £5.95/£9.95); and The Pen Shop, by Thomas Kinsella (April £9.95/£5.95), no. 18 of the Pepper-canister Series.
From Attic Press: Hanna Sheehy Skeffington: Suffragist and Sinn Feiner, by Margaret Ward (spring, £12.99), the story of the revolutionary work of an important figure in Irish history; Annals of the Famine in Ireland by Mrs Asenath Nicholson, edited by Maureen Murphy (spring, £15.99), an eyewitness account by an American reformer who was in Ireland at the time; and Irish Women: Sociological Profiles, edited by Anne Byrne and Madeleine Leonard (spring, £25), essays on the lives of women in modern Ireland - this last one is from Attic's other imprint, Basement Press.
From Lilliput Press: Who's Who in Ireland's Wars, 1919-23, by Padraic O'Farrell (February, £9.99), a comprehensive survey of the individuals involved in Ireland's fight for independence; A Field Guide to the Buildings of Ireland, by Sean Rothery (March, £12); and Irish Diaries: An Anthology, edited by Melosina Lenox-Conyngham (April, £15), an eclectic selection from the doodlings of the well-known and the not so well-known.
From Four Courts Press: The Irish Charter Schools, by Kenneth Milne (January, £35), what was right and what was wrong about them; The Protestant Reformation in Ireland, 1590-1641, by Alan Ford (February, £14.95); Art Societies Index, by Anne Stewart (March, 2 volumes, £125), an extensive work that will be of interest to art historians and collectors; and Christianity and Modern European Literature, by Daniel Murphy (April, £45), including essays on such as Dostoevsky, Unamuno, Eliot, Akhmatova, Milosz and Brodsky. Also one to look out for from Four Courts Press is The Mighty Wave: The 1798 Rebellion in Wexford, edited by Daire Keogh and Nicholas Furlong (£9.95).
From Wolfhound Press: Eyewitness: Bloody Sunday, by Don Mullan (January, £7.99), over 100 eyewitness accounts of the events of 30th January, 1972; A History of the Garda Siochana, by Liam McNiffe (February, £18.99), covering the period from 19221952 Irish Hunger: Exploring the Legacy of the Famine, edited by Tom Hayden (March, £25), including essays by such as John McGahern, Eavan Boland, Nell McCafferty and Fintan O'Toole; Working Mothers, by Patricia O'Reilly (March, £6.99), a compendium on rights and services available; and in April, new editions of Tom McCaughren's Run to Earth, Run Swift, Run Free and Run to the Ark.
From O'Brien Press: Gregorian Chant Classics, book by Dom Kevin Healy and tape by Noirin Ni Riain, backed by the students of St Patrick's College, Thurles; pocket histories of: The IRA by Brendan O'Brien, Irish Literature by A. Norman Jeffares and The Banshee by Patricia Lysaght and for children: Exploring the World of Colmcille by Mairead Ashe FitzGerald, The Leprechaun Trap by Dan Kissane, and the paperback edition of Marita Conlon-McKenna's bestselling Fields Of Home.
From The Collins Press, a new imprint based in Cork: Ireland - Our Island Home, by Kevin Dwyer, a full-colour aerial photographic tour of Ireland's coastline; The Rasherhouse, by Alan Roberts, a novel set in Mountjoy jail; and The Lost Magic of Christianity, by Michael Poynder.
From Poolbeg Press: Turtles All the Way Down, by Gaye Shortland (January, £6.99), a novel about a Corkman dead and turned to clay, but still talking; Philippa's Flight, by Louise Couper (January, £4.99), in which the eponymous heroine flees academic life in Dublin and settles down on a farm in France with handsome rich American Jack; A View to Die For, by Sheila Barrett (January, £5.99), a thriller set in and around Dalkey; Pride of Lions, by Morgan Llywelyn (February, £6.99), an historical novel following the Travails of Brian Boru's youngest son, Donough, after the Battle of Clontarf; Four Houses and a Marriage by Clar Ni Aonghusa (February, £6.99), the life and times of a modern miss whose life is collapsing about her; and for children,
Captain Cockle and the Pond, by John Joyce (February, £3.99).