150 questions about Ireland. And 150 proper answers, with stories and facts.Ireland roofed a river over and built its streets along the top, kept a man in a bog for two thousand years, and protects two shipyard cranes under the same law as an ancient monument. It also has a bridge named after the halfpenny it cost to cross, and a hare found nowhere else on earth. What did a mathematician scratch onto a Dublin bridge in 1843? Why did people sing tunes instead of playing them? And who, exactly, decides what a storm is called? Merlin has been the length and breadth of Ireland, and he has come back with a hundred and fifty questions and all the answers to go with them. Each one gets a whole page: a short answer first, then the full story, a fact box, a picture, and something Merlin could not resist telling you. Inside, among many others: Was St Patrick Irish?Why is hurling on a United Nations heritage list?What happened at Clontarf in 1014?What were the Children of Lir turned into?Who knew the secret recipe for Waterford glass?Who wrote Dracula, and how long did it take him?Why did piglets end up in an Irish kitchen?When could you fly the Atlantic in a boat with wings?Twenty-nine subjects, and no page like the one before it. The land itself, and the rivers, lakes and coasts. Stone circles, saints and scholars. Vikings, Normans and high kings. The Great Hunger, and the millions who left. Belfast and the shipyards, Dublin, music, sport and writers. Two states on one island, weather at its worst, and a good many odd corners. Every answer comes from the people who own the fact - Among them the Office of Public Works, the National Monuments Service, the Royal Irish Academy, the National Museum of Ireland, Trinity College Dublin, National Museums NI, the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, the Commissioners of Irish Lights and Met ?ireann. Nothing in this book rests on a guess. And every page teaches a word, and says plainly what it means. Every page also points at two other related questions, so a reader who follows the trail rather than the page numbers still gets a whole book. Written for curious readers aged 8 to 13, and for the grown-up who ends up reading it over their shoulder. Short sentences, no talking down, and a wizard who would rather show you something interesting than explain himself. Large format, 160 pages, illustrated throughout in black and white. Part of the Who, What, When, Why series from 1831 Publishing - and if this one goes down well, there are books from other countries in the series listing.
