The Cottage

This novel by Cornelius Buckley, follows the two previous collections of poetry. The Last Irish Romantic, was launched by Gabriel Fitzmourice, the noted poet, at the Listowel literary festival. He described the collection as a striking series of works reminiscent of T. S Eliot and Michael Hartnett. The book was praised by the famous Dublin publisher and poet, Pat Boran, as a “truly distinctive debut volume”, and the noted British poet Bernard O’Donoghue described it as “brilliant”. Cornelius’s second collection, Poems from Heartlands, was published recently. It was uniquely innovative in that it contained both printed poems of note, but also hand-written poems woven into distinctive artwork by the author. The colour edition received fulsome praise. It has won the Pinnacle Book Achievement award, the San Francisco Literary Festival award for Poetry; the Author’s Circle award for novel of excellence, the Firebird book award, the Titan award, and the Outstanding Creator award. The Cottage continues that innovative approach. The poetry scattered throughout may seem extraneous, but it is an essential part of the character of the protagonist, a poet and lecturer in literature. It is partly autobiographical. But the novel also owes much to Agatha Christie as a mystery and as such should keep the reader guessing to the end. But it is more than that; the author feels that books should operate on different levels, and The Cottage also embodies literary riches and philosophies that should challenge the reader. It contains theological material also which some might shy away from, but it is part of the character of the author as a priest, and the protagonist as a deacon. The general quality of the work and its mystery should offset any criticism and make this a must-read, full of fascinating byways and twists of the imagination which make this a major work of literary excellence like the author’s previous praised and multi-award-winning poetic art.

 Cornelius is a graduate of St. Patrick’s College Maynooth, and has a doctorate from Oxford University, where he specialised in modern American poetry. He has already published two prose works, Wheels of Light and Learn from Me, and is busy finishing two further novels, The Mountain and The Island. They should be published soon by whatever lucky publisher takes them up.

The Bricken Arch

The lives of two teenage sisters and their cousin boyfriends are forever changed by the mores of their time, by separation to different parts of the world, by relationships with others and by a cruel tragedy. When, after seventeen years, there are reunions and liaisons over two decades, in furtive circumstances, none can imagine that the questionable and consequential actions of one of the lovers will lead to savage repercussions for all: repercussions that will bring on further catastrophic tragedies but more importantly, risk fulfillment of their enduring loves as a foursome.

The Box

The Box tells the story of Rupert and Lucille; their lives, loves, families, achievements, and failures. Lucille is the last child born to a family of generationally poor dirt farmers, while Rupert is the only child born to multi-billionaire parents. Rupert and Lucille’s paths cross due to a confluence of seemingly random events, and, as their business relationship grows, so do their friendship, love, and respect grow for each other. The Box tells how a simple invention has the potential to transform not only their two lives, but the story tells how the invention has the potential to change the lives of thousands of people. Where does it all lead though? Does the invention lead to the good that Rupert first envisioned? Does the invention help Lucille out of her generational poverty? Does the invention help anybody? Or, is the old adage that says, “No good deed goes unpunished,” really true?

The Beautiful Anatomy of Despair

It’s 2014 in San Francisco and Tristan thinks he’s found love. Meanwhile in London, Toby is at work in the City. On the Amalfi Coast, Cordelia and Freddie are fighting about a secret.

The Beautiful Anatomy of Despair is a novel about hope and hopelessness.

It is a portrait of four friends figuring out how to live a meaningful life, and what it takes to survive one that isn’t.

The Anemone Bowl

The tale of an afterlife.

“If the inability to see other than that which you wish to see can be considered a kind of heaven, then presumably the inability to escape self-knowledge must be one version of hell.”

The ill-fated consequences of happenstance: Born into an English country village community in the 1950s, a young boy is led, through a series of events over which he in effect has little or no control, to take the life of a neighbour’s child, and subsequently his own. And this is the tale, if there can be any, of the subsequent accounting.

The book itself is set in an ever-mutating afterlife that also provides an interim existence before rebirth – an illusory world where, of necessity, it is in large part conveniently repressed memories that hold sway, and where for Eric (if we can suppose that to be his name), each step forward is also leading (with some level of perversity) to the truths of his own personal past transgressions.

Tales of Tynant

An 11-acre plot of land on a remote hillside in mid-Wales and its current guardians come together to witness the everyday, sometimes magical, sometimes bizarre goings on; from mating frogs and marauding otters in the pond to the daredevil swallows and RAF pilots above; from Roland the debonair pheasant to Dixie the drag queen who lost their way. Tina Hughes’ stories and illustrations bring to life an uplifting escape to the much-loved land of Tynant.

Sunset Collector

Illusion and disillusion

Friendship and betrayal

Ecstasy and madness

Two young Englishmen arrive in LA in 1980, hungry for experience. They dive headlong into technicolour Hollywood days, sunkissed and free beneath exotic palms. At night they slide on charm through a Sunset Strip parade of hookers, pimps, dealers, gigolos, hitmen, punks and struggling actors. They set up camp in a glamorously sleazy joint and befriend the eccentric barflies. They are a million miles away from Thatcher’s grey, dreary London town, where everything closes by 11.

Innocence collides with experience and there gradually emerges a darker vision of LA: a Manson-haunted, coke-addled, hedonistic playground. A beautiful girl appears at their door at 3am and breaks up the bachelor party. Triangular mind games herald cracks in the unbreakable friendship, then reality itself starts to unravel, on a tragicomic journey of self-discovery, reaching a climax with a mind-bending trip out into the desert.

At the dawn of the 80’s, a rite of passage journey through an impressionistic whirlwind of sex, drugs and mental illness.

Steelsbridge Angels

Steelsbridge Angels is a gritty, compassionate and community-led story of Gary Minton and his burning ambition to play football as a goalkeeper for his hometown club. This leads him to the ultimate glory in the summer of 1966!

Gary strives hard to become a success! Out of poverty, he influences family and friends and all who he encounters in his life.

This is a comical, tragic, uplifting and inspirational novel all about Gary Minton and his Steelsbridge Angels.

Starnberg Series: Book 2 – You Don’t Own Me

Juliette Simon is married, more or less unhappily, and is the most popular folk/pop singer in the German speaking world. She is Marie and Arabella Cooper-Nyman’s new neighbour, and lives in her purpose-built villa on Lake Starnberg in Bavaria.

She meets and falls in love with one of her backing singers, Jodie Sanchez. Their story is one full of trials and tribulations. Juliette must confront the homophobia rampant in the folk music world. Jodie must decide: her solo career in the USA, or Juliette?

Star in the Shadows

The world thinks that pop superstar Kiara Anderson has it all, but she spends her nights drinking away memories of her childhood and life as a teen runaway. The Jacobs family are desperate to see the girl next door again and discover why she ran away, especially their son, Shane, who blames himself for her disappearance. When Kiara's manager forces her into a reveal-all TV interview, she knows the family she loved more than her own will finally discover the truth. Can she overcome her demons or will the shadows of the past rob her of fame, fortune, and a chance to finally fall in love?

Snow Is Falling

Christmas. A time for families to celebrate together. To be merry and bright.

Emma Snow is reluctant to return to her husband Colin’s family home for Christmas this year, with a seemingly good reason.

Maisie Snow is a perfectionist with high standards and expectations from all of her children; however, she is starting to feel like she is no longer needed.

Ming Pun is nervous about visiting her boyfriend Harris’ family for the first time and brings with her a big secret.

This Christmas turns out to be more unpredictable and unexpected than any of these three women could possibly have imagined.

Shei and Bassam

It is understood that the women in the royal family will not make an effort to welcome Shei.

She is a converted Christian, and she was swept off her feet by their handsome bachelor, Bassam.

She doesn’t dress like them; she is all Prada and Gucci. 

Their abayas hide their Prada and Gucci. Their beauty is seen in their eyes, smiles and kindness.