The Nana: Alice Taylor on the glories of grandmothers 

Now in her 80s, the Co Cork author is as prolific as ever, and her latest book celebrates the role that Nanas play in the lives of younger family members 

Alice Taylor at her home in Innishannon Co  Cork. Picture: Eddie O'Hare

IT is hard to keep up with Alice Taylor, Ireland’s chronicler of rural life and lore who lives in the village of Innishannon in Co Cork but whose work is celebrated nationwide and far beyond our shores. She is one of Ireland’s most prolific authors and even she has difficulty totting up the number of books she has written and had published to date.

It all started in 1988 with To School Through the Fields. It quickly became the biggest selling book ever published in Ireland and sequels like Quench the Lamp, The Village, Country Days and The Night Before Christmas, were also very successful, and were sold internationally and translated into many languages.