Frank McCourt

"'Tis is the story of Frank's American journey from impoverished immigrant to brilliant teacher and raconteur. Frank lands in New York at age nineteen, in the company of a priest he meets on the boat. He gets a job at the Biltmore Hotel, where he immediately encounters the vivid hierarchies of this "classless country," and then is drafted into the army and is sent to Germany to train dogs and type reports." "When Frank returns to America in 1953,...

Six year-old Angela of Limerick, Ireland, worries for the Baby Jesus on the altar of St. Joseph's Church near School House Lane where she lives and on the damp, cold December nights the baby is sure to need her help.

We all know the basics of punctuation. Or do we? A look at most neighborhood signage tells a different story. Through sloppy usage and low standards on the internet, in email, and now text messages, we have made proper punctuation an endangered species. In Eats, Shoots & Leaves, former editor Lynne Truss dares to say, in her delightfully urbane, witty, and very English way, that it is time to look at our commas and semicolons and see them as the wonderful...

At Christmastime, six-year-old Angela takes the baby Jesus from the cold church manger to her warm house in Limerick, Ireland. Based on a childhood story told by the author's mother.

Life in impoverished Depression-era Ireland holds little promise for young Frank McCourt, the oldest son in a tightly-knit family. Living by his wits, cheered by his irrepressible spirit, and sustained by his mother's fierce love, Frank embarks on an inspiring journey to overcome the poverty of his childhood and reach the land of his dreams: America.

Brotherhood was conceived in the immediate aftermath of the World Trade Center atrocity and the massive loss of life in the city's first line of defense against disaster, its Fire Department. More than sixty photographers, including some of the most distinguished names in the field, were asked to document all aspects of the department at this tumultuous and tragic moment in its history: the seventy FDNY locations that lost firefighters; surviving...

Born to Irish parents, McCourt endured a childhood of extreme poverty. He rose from humble beginnings to become a Pulitzer Prize winner. In "Angela's ashes", he recounts the heartbreaking stories and the soul-saving humor of his childhood.

A selection of ireland's leading performing talent gather at Slane Castle to offer stories, anecdotes, music and songs to express the spirit of an Irish Christmas.