This anthology, compiled by the novelist Molly Keane and her daughter, freelance journalist Sally Phipps, contains an array of the best in Irish literature: both the famous and the less well-known. Swift, Joyce, Yeats, Synge, O'Connor, Kinsella, Beckett, O'Faolain, Heaney, Campbell and McGuckian, among others, write on subjects ranging from God, exile, love and death to fairies, horse-racing, wit and whiskey. Whether it is Elizabeth Bowen on the country house, Trollope on hospitality, musings on the magical colours of the wind, or a recipe for moss pudding, the pieces collected here capture the romantic, elusive Irish character, reflect the richness of the culture and paint a picture of the "struggle and the glory" of life in Ireland throughout history.