Des MacHale – författare

Test your wits with a whole latte puzzles This book is filled with classic brainteasers, featuring bite-size puzzles that will test your wits in a variety of ways, featuring math puzzles, wordplay, logic, lateral thinking, visual puzzles, and more! They’re the perfect accompaniment to a coffee break (or any other kind of break), posing challenges that are quick but satisfying.

'The Essential George Boole: Logic, Love and Legacy' is a captivating portrait of a brilliant mind and the family that shaped him. George Boole, a largely self-taught genius, as a youth mastered multiple languages and scientific disciplines and later developed symbolic logic and what is now called Boolean algebra, the foundation of modern computing. He rose from poverty to become a respected professor at Queen's College Cork, now University College Cork. It is believed by some that he inspired Arthur Conan Doyle's creation of Professor Moriarty, the arch-enemy of Sherlock Holmes. But Boole's story isn't just about logical and mathematical prowess. He was married to a remarkable woman, educationalist Mary Everest. Their five remarkable daughters and subsequent generations carried on a legacy of brilliance, breaking barriers in science, medicine and literature. Geoffrey Hinton, George Boole's great great-grandson, is the 2024 Nobel Laureate in Physics. Boole's story as one of the founders of the digital age is one of perseverance, love and ideas that changed virtually everything.

John Ford’s The Quiet Man (1952) is the most popular cinematic representation of Ireland, and one of Hollywood's classic romantic comedies. For some viewers and critics the film is a powerful evocation of romantic Ireland and the search for home. This book contains new and original information and photographs about the film The Quiet Man. Des MacHale has found a range of unexpected new information about the film. The book opens with the letters of John Ford’s secretary, Meta Sterne, giving authentic information and commentary about what went on behind the scenes on location in Ireland. There were many rumours of a sequel to The Quiet Man but they never came off. However, a belated sequel Only the Lonely starring Maureen O’Hara was produced in 1991 and it is described and analysed. The emergence of the screenplay of The Quiet Man is a long and complicated saga. The book examines the initial rejected screenplay by the Welsh novelist Richard Llewellyn which contained much of the inspiration for the final cut of the movie. The memoirs of Maureen Coyne—Cashman, who lives in Brooklyn, New York, are published here for the first time. She is one of the few surviving bit players and she describes her experiences on set with Wayne, O’Hara, and Ford. The real-life incidents on which the ecumenical scenes in the film are based are discussed. The final part of the book covers more recent events including the Quiet Man conference held in Galway in 2004 and the opening of Pat Cohan’s bar in 2008 which featured in the film as a real bar. The book also contains dozens of previously unseen stills from the movie and many unseen photographs of locations and personalities.