Light reads, accessible history and gripping novels are championed by the people we asked to recommend their best reads of 2017, writes Richard Fitzpatrick.

There’s no need to break the bank for a scrumptious feast on the big day. For a mere red and blue note, Donal Hayes cooks up a delicious three-course meal for five.

IN all of the accolades and tributes published in memory of the fine actor/humanitarian Paul Newman, none mentioned the fact that early in his budding career, his first appearance on television was in 1955 on the NBC musical version of Thornton Wilder’s ‘Our Town’ that starred Frank Sinatra and co-starred Eva Marie Saint and the great man himself.

Fred Ebb, who wrote the lyrics for hit Broadway musicals including Chicago and Cabaret, as well as the big-city anthem, New York, New York, has died of a heart attack.