Great Irish Heroes by Danny Conlon and Alan Barter. John Blake Publishing; £7.99

THE rousing cover picture of Michael Collins, fists clenched and in full flight, sets the tone of Great Irish Heroes, a lively collection of stories of men and women whose names have reverberated through the pages of history.

While many are household personalities, others are less well known and some reflect our penchant to claim either the famous or notorious as Irish once their roots can be traced back to the ‘ould sod’. The collaborative work of Danny Conlon and Alan Barter, this is a page-turning read, crammed with action-packed pen pictures.