Gander at The Gate is the story of a rural Irish childhood in Knocknagoshel, Kerry, in the thirties. Through the eyes of a son of the local schoolmaster, this beautifully written memoir evokes the world of a farmhouse, the family who lived there and the community, peopled with lively characters like Tip Toe the Tinker and Coneen the Boy Bawn, which surrounded them. In vivid, highly lyrical prose, reminiscent of a young Laurie Lee, O'Connor describes the wonder and imaginings, apprehensions and fears of a growing boy - and the darker shadows cast by his father's and Ireland's past. It has the hallmark of an instant classic.