Cornerstone

'I have him bitched, balloxed and bewildered, for there's a system and a science in taking the piss out of a screw and I'm a well-trained man at it.' So writes Brendan Behan, poet, writer and literary legend, of the episode that coloured his life.

The immigration man read my deportation order, looked at it and handed it back to me. Not only is it the last instalment of a unique and unorthodox autobiography, but of a unique and unorthodox life that was as touched with genius as it was with doom.

When Mona Gray is ten, her father contracts a mysterious illness. When she becomes a maths teacher, Mona delights her pupils by encouraging them to find objects that take the form of numbers.

Bringing much-needed humour to another chaotic year in politics, Britain's Best Political Cartoons 2023 offers a tour of the most high-profile, notorious and absurd news stories of the year, as seen through the eyes of our nation's finest satirists.

Offers an account of BP oil corporation in crisis, and examines how crucial decisions made during BP's remarkable turnaround paved the way for its darkest hour.

- TOM HANKS_____________________A FRIENDSHIP NOTHING COULD DESTROYEvacuated from Blitz-battered London, the shy Elizabeth White is sent to stay with the O'Connor family in Kilgarret, Ireland, where she strikes up an unlikely friendship with the lively, boisterous Aisling O'Connor.

Big Benny and the elfin Eve Malone have been best friends throughout their childhoods in sleepy Knockglen. When they both go to study in Dublin, they meet a circle of friends. As Knockglen is surprised into new life, the two girls, Benny and Eve, discover that among the many distractions of growing up, true friendship is the greatest gift of all.

Desmond and Deirdre Doyle will have been married for 25 years in October. It falls to the Doyles' eldest daughter, Anna, to decide how to commemorate her parents' Silver Wedding. No use in asking her sister or brother. But it is unthinkable not to have a party, even though for the Doyles, family occasions are more difficult than for most.

Growing up in a small seaside town in the 1950s, Clare O'Brien and David Power pray that their destiny will lead them faraway from the town in which they live. Years later, they meet again in Dublin, where David is studying medicine and Clare has won a scholarship to University College. This is a story of ambition, betrayal and love.

Kate and John Ryan have four children, of whom the eldest are Michael and Dara. Their small town is peaceful and friendly, an unchanging background for a golden childhood. In long, hot summers Michael and Dara and their friends fish and swim or play in the ivy-clad ruins of Fernscourt, when the great house burnt down during the Troubles...

and a drink-ridden photographer tries to relaunch a shattered career... This vintage collection of stories from the bestselling author of Light a Penny Candle and Circle of Friends is Maeve Binchy at her best - her trademark warmth, wit and compassion are unmistakeable.