Ireland
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Cover Story
This issue’s cover illustration by Fangorn is taken from Brian Jacques’ Lord Brocktree (Hutchinson, 0 09 176877 2, £12.99), the thirteenth title in the internationally best-selling Redwall series. Salamandastron, the ancestral home of the Badger Lords, is under threat from Ungatt Trunn, an enemy whose power would seem to be absolute and whose evil knows no bounds. The only hope for survival is the badger Lord Brocktree who is drawn to the fortress by an undeniable sense of destiny. Brian Jacques' masterful storytelling as always spins a web of high adventure that will enthral the reader from the first page to the last. Thanks to Hutchinson Children’s Books for their help in producing this September cover.
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Ireland
Martin Brown
'History', as the back-cover blurb reminds us, 'has never been so horrible!' When, as here, the subject is Ireland, it is a reasonable claim, so reasonable in fact that Deary's decision to deal with the country in a format which demands humorous treatment earns immediately some measure of admiration - if not, indeed, amazement: what, for example, can he possibly make of the Great Famine or of 1916 or of the country's apparent obsession with its various 'bloody' Sunday? The humour is generally to be found in the play between the essential seriousness of the content and the essential facetiousness of the style; it is, sometimes, a very precarious balancing act. Young readers will, however, find enough to amuse them without having to worry too much about such niceties.
