Michael Collins

Dr James Mackay was an award-winning author and historian, and was widely regarded as the world's greatest authority on the life and works of Robert Burns. As well as his definitive biography, Burns, winner of the Saltire Award for Scottish Book of the Year, he published accounts of the lives of the great Scottish patriot William Wallace and the Irish statesman Michael Collins. He was also the author of biographies of the celebrated detective Allan Pinkerton (The Eye Who Never Slept), the poet Robert Service (Vagabond of Verse) and Alexander Graham Bell (Sounds Out of Silence).

"in this fine biography James Mackay is frank in his admiration for Collins ... and he achieves the balance between the private and the public man with great skill" The Scotsman "James Mackay is at the forefront of the pro-Collins forces ... thorough and full of interesting anecdotes" Financial Times "This biography tells the story well, and with a life like Collins's - so crammed with action, so poignant, yet so clouded with rumour and doubt - this is no mean feat ... Anyone trying to make sense of the enduring struggles in Ireland should read this book" Sunday Times "A marvellously detailed account of the life of one of the most significant figures in Irish history" West Highland Free Press "A realistic and readable account of Collins's life" The Observer