With their flat caps, half tans, and muddy shoes, farmers might be an unlikely choice of pin-up, yet every year thousands scramble to get their hands on the Irish Farmer Calendar, ogling the prime Irish beef within.

The winner of the Man Booker Prize is nominated for a dubious honour in the literary world — the Bad Sex in Fiction Awards.

William Ryan has written a third crime novel featuring Captain Alexei Korolev and he tells Declan Burke why the series is set in Russia

Former drugs smuggler and convict Howard Marks is in Cork this week, writes Richard Fitzpatrick