This book has been widely praised in its hard-cover version and is invaluable not only as social history, but as a mildly nostalgic tribute to the great era of the pint-of-stout drinker and the old-style publican. It is entirely in oral, i.e. interview, form, with the barmen in particular telling their story from their vantage-point inside the counter. The great days of the literary pubs - a vanished species - are brought alive and their characters, good or unpleasant, recalled. The many photographs add an extra layer of interest. Another useful book of "oral" history is Dublin Street Life and Lore by Kevin C. Kearns (same publisher, £12.99) dealing with the era of the street-sellers, the rag-and-bone men and other vanished trades and sights. B.F.