US car workers vented their fury today over Barack Obama’s tough tactics, inflaming long-simmering feelings that the people who put America on wheels are treated differently to the wizards of Wall Street.

Anyone who has ever read JG Ballard’s Empire of the Sun (Warner, 21.99) should pick up a copy of this Steven Spielberg two-disc edition.

I AM researching the Graham family who resided in the Kildare area, certainly up to the 1990s.