A Bunch of Wild Roses

A Bunch of Wild Roses is a new novel from the pen of Edward Forde Hickey.

It is set in the fictional surroundings of Rookery Rally, in northern Tipperary, Ireland.

It pays homage to the rural communities of Ireland, where although poverty was a reality for many of the inhabitants, the people were, in general, fairly contented with their lot in life. They made the best of what they had.

The story opens not long after the dreadful famine that swept Ireland, and we witness the arrival of Dandy, a man of Galway, as he arrives in the community of Rookery Rally.

We follow him and the other residents of the area, look at their colourful lives, how they work and live together during a time that, to modern day eyes, seems strange, almost alien, as one might say.

The stories cover a period of time from the 1860s right through until 1930. Although it spans 70 odd years, the times they lived through did not change all that much in the rural community of northern Tipperary. Changes came. Of course they did. But not at any great rapidity.

Readers will follow the life and times of the Spallidagh family and the people that they know and who they lived and worked with.

The book is written in such a fashion that it is episodic and almost diary like in its construction and style.

It's almost as if we, the readers, enter into a dreamlike world in which we take a peek back at times that might have been. Although the book is presented as a work of fiction, it's clearly more than that as it contains many great truths and reflects the early life of the author as he lived in a community very much like Rookery Rally, in Dolla, northern Tipperary.

The book is published by Matador at £9.99.

I think RTE should take an option on turning this into a television series.