Desmond Leslie (1921-2001)When a guidebook to Ireland described his family as being mildly eccentric, Desmond Leslie took offence and wrote to the publishers informing them that, on the contrary, the Leslies were very eccentric. Son of writer Sir Shane Leslie and brother of historian Anita Leslie, Desmond Leslie has never before been the subject of a biography. Throughout his life, he maintained a reputation for unconventionality. Hardly surprising, when one of his godparents

and dealing with a funeral (not a good time to network)

This classic study of Irish culture

The story is told through a cache of letters discovered on Hubert Butler's death between he and his friend 'Old Joe'

In a Prelude to Horsehead Nebula Neighing

in 1929 and raised in Co

Mac Intyre reverts to the fiercely sensual love poetry of eighteenth-century Ireland and to earlier troubadour traditions

He sees himself as a generational runt in a line of heroes

because 40 years on

sport and social history to create a humorous and informative guide to some of the more bizarre byways of the English language

cello enthusiasts

He made the name of the Gate Theatre in 1929 with his astonishing first play The Old Lady Says ‘No

among others