JUST back from a hectic few days in Capetown, whizzing from one speaking engagement to the next.

Very few Irish destinations have had the dramatic history of Kinsale. Dan McCarthy looks at the history of the town, from the maritime to

WHEN it came to writing novels, Laurence Sterne, born in Clonmel, Co Tipperary, 300 years ago this week, certainly enjoyed experimenting. Pages strewn with long dashes, asterisks and the odd hand sign; a torn out chapter; two pages completely smudged with printer’s ink; and a section playfully left blank for the reader to write their own character description.

PARK STREET Cemetery in central Calcutta, or Kolkata as it is now known, is a good place to encounter the Irish who once served in the British army in India, including many who were employed as petty officials in the centuries before Indian independence.

The Shape of the Beast: Conversations with Arundhati Roy

For All the Tea in China, by Robert Fortune.

ACCORDING to the Examiner of June 26, the light died, last month, for the oldest known living animal.

A giant tortoise thought to be one of the world’s oldest creatures has died in a Calcutta zoo, ending a life that spanned much of modern Indian history.