An Irish Christmas Feast

'Hilariously Irish, shrewdly accurate and richly creative.' -Irish Times 'Creates a charming emotional map of a fictitious but authentic-seeming place.' -Boston Globe  'John B.'s love of language was - and is - a joy to experience.' -Brendan Kennelly A collection of more than fifty tales by one of Ireland's liveliest and most popular story writers. Drawing on the rich folk culture of County Kerry, John B. Keane brings new life to old customs in his portrayals of the special holiday dreams and everyday shortcomings of not-so-ordinary country people during the Christmas season. With enough good cheer to warm the heart throughout the holiday season and all the long nights of winter, Keane's congenial volume revisits the Christmases celebrated by characters like Dotie Tupper and Johnny Naile , the deaf Canon Cornelius Coodle, the amiable spendthrift Aenias Mackson, and Hiccups O'Reilly, who disappears one Christmas Eve and is gone for seven years. Whether recounting 'The Miracle of Ballybradawn', 'The Great Christmas Raid at Ballybooley', or 'The Order of MacMoolamawn', whether telling the tales of 'The Magic Stoolin', 'A Tasmanian Backhander', 'The Fourth Wise Man' or the 'Last Christmas Eve of the Twentieth Century', Keane bears delightful witness to the trials and triumphs of the inhabitants of his eccentric corner of Ireland.

John B. Keane, one of Ireland's most prolific and respected literary figures, died on 30 May 2002 at the age of 73, after a long and difficult battle with cancer. He was born in Listowel, County Kerry and it was here that he spent his literary career, running a pub which provided him with inspiration for his characters and ideas. He remains one of Ireland's best-loved and best-selling authors. His plays Sive, The Field and Big Maggie are widely regarded as classics of the modern Irish stage and jewels in a crown which also includes such popular hits as Sharon's Grave, The Year of the Hiker, Many Young Men of Twenty, The Man from Clare, Moll and The Chastitute and The Year of the Hiker. It was not just in his plays that John B. Keane managed to portray all aspects of humanity with both wit and truth. He also wrote many fine novels, including The Contractors, A High Meadow and Durango. Also a writer of essays, short stories and letters, his humorous words live on in Celebrated Letters of John B. Keane, More Celebrated Letters, The Best of John B. Keane and The Short Stories of John B. Keane.