But having covered her childhood as a Russian princess, her exile in Paris, and the discovery of her phenomenal voice, the prima donna reached her first husband s death

    Detailed and clear exposition of such topics as traditional expectations, money demand, and policy rules are integrated into the text's readily accessible and popular format.

    In his blind jealous rage he later gives away the baby to gypsy Rona Parrish, summoned to help with the delivery. Kathleen, frenzied with grief, is soon after locked away in an asylum. Rejected by her father, the little girl begins her new life with only a valuable brooch pinned to her shawl as a clue to her true origins. Named after Rona's own mother, the lovely raven-haired Starlena grows up in ignorance of her true parentage and vast inheritance, believing her birthplace to be the beautiful Whistledown Valley. And Rona, always afraid, stays watchful over the years for any sign that someone might track Starlena down - someone who wishes her harm...

    

    a superb book and it's not just for people interested in law; it tells you a lot about Ireland' Vincent Browne, TV3 The judges, the decisions, the rifts and the rivalries - the gripping inside story of the institution that has shaped Ireland. 'Combines painstaking research with acute analysis and intelligence' Colm Tóibín, Irish Times' Books of the Year'[Mac Cormaic] has done something unprecedented and done it with a striking maturity, balance and adroitness. He creates the intimacy necessary but never loses sight of the wider contexts; this is not just a book about legal history; it is also about social, political and cultural history ... [the Supreme Court] has found a brilliant chronicler in Ruadhan Mac Cormaic' Diarmaid Ferriter, Professor of Modern Irish History, UCD'Mac Cormaic quite brilliantly tells the story ... balanced, perceptive and fair ... a major contribution to public understanding' Donncha O'Connell, Professor of Law, NUIG, Dublin Review of Books'Compelling ... a remarkable story, told with great style' Irish Times'Authoritative, well-written and highly entertaining' Sunday TimesThe work of the Supreme Court is at the heart of the private and public life of the nation. Whether it's a father trying to overturn his child's adoption, a woman asserting her right to control her fertility, republicans fighting extradition, political activists demanding an equal hearing in the media, women looking to serve on juries, the state attempting to prevent a teenager ending her pregnancy, a couple challenging the tax laws, a gay man fighting his criminalization simply for being gay, a disabled young man and his mother seeking to vindicate his right to an education, the court's decisions can change lives.Now, having had unprecedented access to a vast number of sources, and conducted hundreds of interviews, including with key insiders, award-winning Irish Times journalist Ruadhan Mac Cormaic lifts the veil on the court's hidden world.The Supreme Court reveals new and surprising information about well-known cases. It exposes the sometimes fractious relationship between the court and the government. But above all it tells a story about people - those who brought the cases, those who argued in court, those who dealt with the fallout and, above all, those who took the decisions. Judges' backgrounds and relationships, their politics and temperaments, as well as the internal tensions between them, are vital to understanding how the court works and are explored here in fascinating detail.The Supreme Court is both a riveting read and an important and revealing account of one of the most powerful institutions of our state.Ruadhan Mac Cormaic is the former Legal Affairs Correspondent and Paris Correspondent of the Irish Times. He is now the paper's Foreign Affairs Correspondent.

    As the Allies make great gains in France, the Channel Islands remain a bastion of Nazi-occupied territory. On Jersey, Lieutenant-Colonel Max von Luck is in charge of liaising with the civilian population. He has little time for his fanatical colleagues, and has earned the respect of many of the Islanders. In his bunker in Berlin, Hitler decides to deploy the V3 - a weapon so secret that even the slave labourers constructing it deep beneath the island of Alderney do not know its exact purpose.June 1990. Workmen digging the foundations for a new hotel start to fall sick. Their illness is similar to that suffered by many islanders over the past half-century. Journalist Robert Lebonneur is suspicious. Then he finds a diary written by Lieutenant-Colonel Max von Luck during the wartime occupation. The diary makes it clear that much more is at stake than a mysterious illness. As Lebonneur investigates, he begins to run into the same dark forces that von Luck found himslf up against nearly half a century before...

    He has returned from his annual pilgrimage to a graveyard in Wales. Now he hopes to take refuge from his memories by heading an archeological dig in the village of Wytchlow. It is a simple project -- checking for ancient relics before a land developer levels the earth -- until a woman with an all-too-familiar face stumbles into the path of his car.Bobby Redhead bears a striking resemblance to a woman he loved and tragically lost years ago. Bobby cannot understand the emotions she evokes in Patrick, but she can sense his deep suffering. What has he done that he cannot forgive? And why is Bobby so drawn to him?As Bobby reaches out, Patrick retreats into silence and shadows, focusing obsessively on the dig. They are hunting ancient Roman mosaics, but there is something more tantalizing in the soil of Wytchlow. It is only a myth, a local folktale, a song sung one night in a pub by an otherwise mute man. The story goes that a Saxon girl called the German Queen has been buried close by. The only evidence is the old song, but it is enough to capture Patrick's imagination as nothing has in years.It has also captured the unwanted interest of a television producer fascinated with Patrick's past. Yet nothing will deter Patrick from the project -- not the television hype, nor the developer's greed, nor the bittersweet relationship of working so close to Bobby. As centuries fall away, the Saxon warrior woman lost to time is suddenly as vividly alive to Patrick as the woman standing beside him. As Patrick struggles with the unforgivable tragedy he cannot forget, he senses a connection between Bobby and the lost queen and discovers his destiny is powerfully entwined with them both. Beneath the shadows of a timeless moon, under layers of earth that have protected her secrets, can the fragile bones of a royal matriarch heal the hearts of those who would dare free her?

    Talented, awkward and a little fierce, she can't help thinking that she's managed to lose anything she's ever loved. So she decides to revisit her past in America, and she's brought her camera - she's going to catch these memories.

    When her sister Beatrice disappeared from her home in the dark woods of Co. Meath, it was 13-year-old Eithne who uncovered the forlorn evidence of her life: a string of pearls, a pink beret, a compact and her beloved sketchbook. Their mother, Sarah, was so grief-stricken that she did not speak for five years, and her father Joe, sank further into drink-filled rage.Now, as an adult, Eithne is an artist, and tries to remember her sister in her sketches of the dark wooded bogs behind her house. For there was something else about Beatrice that was rarely spoken of in the household, a dark, guilty secret that her disappearance only made worse. And now, almost twenty years later, all could be revealed when a stranger appears . . .Framed by Eithne's journey to discover the truth about her sister, with the magic and beauty of art running through it, this is a richly compelling, haunting story of family secrets, passion and ultimately redemption.'Vivid and powerful, BEATRICE is a novel told in gleaming moments, like a string of pearls brought one by one out of the dark. It has the compelling power of a detective story, following a trail of ghosts into the past'NIALL WILLIAMS'It totally grips the reader's attention quite literally to the very final paragraph . . . it marks the debut of a deeply mature and skilful voice . . . 'DERMOT BOLGER, THE SUNDAY INDEPENDENT

    At 42, many would say he's done that - probably including Mourinho, who has called himself the Special One. From translator and assistant to Sir Bobby Robson at Barcelona, to Champions League-winning manager at Porto and on to (potentially) Europe's most successful football club at Chelsea, Jose Mourinho's ascent has been rapid. Backed by Abramovich's billions, Mourinho has weeded out those not fully committed to his methods, has made several astute signings and has improved the game of many Chelsea stars. The result: in his first season, Chelsea won both the Premier League title and the Carling Cup. Patrick Barclay, award-winning football correspondent of the Sunday Telegraph, has written an intelligent, analytical and concise account of the psychology of Mourinho. To develop this portrait, he has interviewed those who have worked with him, such as Sir Bobby Robson and Louis van Gaal, as well as the players who provide a revealing insight into what has made Mourinho the most successful manager in the world at the moment.

    For the Devlin family in Liverpool, the wartime years have been almost too much to bear. But at long last sisters Grace and Chrissie can return to their normal lives. Level-headed and hard-working, Grace wants nothing more than to meet a nice man and settle down. Vivacious Chrissie, though, craves fun and excitement – and there’s not much of that to be had in the austere post-war years. So when Chrissie meets Pat Kilroy, a handsome Irishman, she’s swept off her feet and eagerly follows Pat to Ireland. Chrissie soon realises she has made a terrible mistake, and Grace rushes to her side to help. But the consequences of Chrissie’s actions are to be as far-reaching as they are devastating.

    They blamed it all on her lack of a mother. But Madeline was happy: her father was parent enough. Till he wasn't there for her any more, and Madeline had to grow up fast. Befriended by Annie, she catches a glimpse of normal family life, and sees Annie glow as she marries her adoring Willie. Madeline has never wanted a regular man in her own life, yet somehow she finds herself living in a rambling Highland mansion with Stuart, loving to the point of exhaustion, and painting her heart out. Until life creeps into the idyll with a vengeance...

    After escaping the conflict, he became a Franciscan priest and is now an anthropologist. Gavilán Sánchez's words mark otherwise forgotten acts of brutality and kindness, moments of misery and despair as well as solidarity and love.

    But that doesn’t explain why Paul’s closest friend, Alex Drew, appears to be involved. Or why the fall that ends Paul’s career should finally destroy Alex. Paul discovers a link between what happened at Plumpton and a sequence of other accidents apparently connected with a private poker school run by the wealthy property developer Clay Wentworth. Stud Poker seems to have little to do with the world of National Hunt racing, but by the time Paul is caught up in the dangerous game, other less honest players have stepped forward. And the stakes are high.

    With no geographical raison d'etre and no obvious political roots in its Roman, Germanic, or Islamic pasts, it for long remained a small, struggling realm on Europe's outer fringe. Then, in the early fifteenth century, this unlikely springboard for Western expansion suddenly began to accumulate an empire of its own, eventually extending more than halfway around the globe. The History of Portugal and the Portuguese Empire, drawing particularly on historical scholarship postdating the 1974 Portuguese Revolution, offers readers a comprehensive overview and reinterpretation of how all this happened - the first such account to appear in English for more than a generation. Volume I concerns the history of Portugal itself from pre-Roman times to the climactic French invasion of 1807, and Volume II traces the history of the Portuguese overseas empire.