The Hook Peninsula, County Wexford (Irish Rural Landscape) [Hardcover]

"This book is a unique contribution to the appreciation of the Irish landscape. Working on an intimate area, Billy Colfer has been able to track change from prehistory to the present. The volume is marvellously produced with 400 illustrations - including 50 maps, historical sketches and drawings as well as stunning aerial photographs. The Hook peninsula is surely the most detailed examination of landscape formation in any comparable Irish or European setting." Professor John Mannion, Memorial University of Canada. The essence of the Hook is distilled in the pages of this beautiful book. From fossils to castles, the book leaves no stone unturned. The volume peels back layer upon layer of time, tradition and territory, providing us with crucial insights into why we are who we are. For residents it provides explanations: for non-residents, it is a revelation. Eoin Colfer is the author of international bestseller Artemis Fowl

The Hook Peninsula continues the Irish Rural Landscape series, building on the research agenda established by the internationally successful Atlas of the Irish rural landscape. Located in county Wexford, this region was the first to be conquered by the Anglo-Normans and its landscape was shaped by the establishment of two Cistercian abbies (Tintern and Dunbrody) in the Middle Ages. The location of the peninsula beside a major estuary and busy shipping lanes was of vital importance. The Hook figured prominently in the Confederate Wars in the seventeenth century and in the 1798 rebellion. Today the peninsula attracts holiday makers and the insatiable demand for holiday homes presents a challenge for admirers of this marvellous but vulnerable landscape. This compact and highly distinctive peninsula makes for a compelling case-study in which Billy Colfer carefully knits the local story into a wider narrative. An eye for detail and an intuitive understanding of his local community creates a vivid story, while Colfer's obvious love for the Hook infuses the volume with an underlying passion all the more moving for being understated. Ireland, 'an island nation,' has at last a volume informed by a maritime perspective from a writer who understands the sea and its formative influence on landscapes and lives. In these beautiful pages, an astonishing array of maps, photographs, paintings, archive sketches and new drawings ensure that the Hook landscape is given a radiant treatment.'The essence of the Hook is distilled in the pages of this beautiful book. From fossils to castles, the book leaves no stone unturned. The volume peels back layer upon layer of time, tradition and territory, providing us with crucial insights into why we are who we are. For residents it provides explanations: for non-residents, it is a revelation.'Eoin Colfer is the author of the international bestseller Artemis Fowl. 'This book is a unique contribution to the appreciation of the Irish landscape. Working on an intimate area, Billy Colfer has been able to track change from prehistory to the present. The volume is marvellously produced : its 450 illustrations include 50 maps, historical sketches and drawings as well as stunning aerial photographs. The Hook Peninsula is surely the most detailed examination of landscape formation in any comparable Irish or European setting.'Professor John Mannion, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

Billy Colfer is a graduate of St Patrick's College, Drumcondra and Trinity College Dublin where he completed doctoral research on Medieval Wexford. Since his retirement from primary teaching, he has been writing and researching his native County Wexford. His most recent book was Arrogant Trespass: Anglo-Norman Wexford 1169-1400 (Duffry Press, 2002).