This anthology, compiled by the novelist Molly Keane and her daughter, freelance journalist Sally Phipps, contains an array of the best in Irish literature: both the famous and the less well-known. Swift, Joyce, Yeats, Synge, O'Connor, Kinsella, Beckett, O'Faolain, Heaney, Campbell and McGuckian, among others, write on subjects ranging from God, exile, love and death to fairies, horse-racing, wit and whiskey. Whether it is Elizabeth Bowen on the country house, Trollope on hospitality, musings on the magical colours of the wind, or a recipe for moss pudding, the pieces collected here capture the romantic, elusive Irish character, reflect the richness of the culture and paint a picture of the "struggle and the glory" of life in Ireland throughout history.

A BBC TWO BETWEEN THE COVERS BOOK CLUB PICK (BOOKER PRIZE GEMS) 'Molly Keane is a mistress of wicked comedy' Vogue 'I really wish I had written this book. It's a tragi-comedy set in Ireland after the First World War. A real work of craftsmanship' Hilary Mantel I do know how to behave - believe me, because I know. I have always known . . . Behind the gates of Temple Alice, the aristocratic Anglo-Irish St Charles family sinks into a state of decaying grace. To Aroon St Charles, large and unlovely daughter of the house, the fierce forces of sex, money, jealousy and love seem locked out by the ritual patterns of good behaviour. But crumbling codes of conduct cannot hope to save the members of the St Charles family from their own unruly and inadmissible desires. This elegant and allusive novel established Molly Keane as the natural successor to Jean Rhys. 'I have read and re-read Molly Keane more, I think, than any other writer. Nobody else can touch her as a satirist, tragedian and dissector of human behaviour. I love all her books, but Good Behaviour and Loving and Giving are the ones I return to most' Maggie O'Farrell

Using the cover artwork of our much-loved Virago Modern Classics hardback range, these elegant unlined notebooks celebrate three of our most popular titles: The Talented Mr Ripley by Patricia Highsmith; The Magic Toyshop by Angela Carter; and Good Behaviour by Molly Keane. These beautiful notebooks are a must-have for all Virago fans - surely the most stylish way of collecting notes on your favourite books. Or maybe they will inspire you to write a novel of your own . . . Each notebook features a ribbon bookmark, high-quality paper and matching endpapers. The Talented Mr Ripley and The Magic Toyshop feature artwork by vintage textile designers Marian Mahler and Jacqueline Groag. Good Behaviour features a cover by award-winning designers Eley Kishimoto: http://www.eleykishimoto.com/

This is the story of one glorious gothic mansion, Garonlea, and two rather different women who would be Queen. Lady Charlotte French-McGrath has successfully ruled over her family with an iron will, until the arrival of Cynthia--beautiful, young, talented, selfish, and engaged to her son Desmond. Cynthia is a denizen of the Jazz Age and, on the surface, her life passes in a whirl of hunting, drinking, and romance. But the ghosts of Garonlea are only biding their time. They know the source of their power--a secret handed down through generations.

Jessica and Jane have been living together for six months. They are devoted friends--or are they? Jessica loves her friend with the cruelty of total possessiveness. Jane is rich, silly, and drinks rather too many brandy-and-sodas. Watching from the sidelines, Sylvester regrets that she should be loved and bullied and perhaps even murdered by that frightful Jessica, but decides it is none of his business. When the Irish gentleman George Playfair meets Jane, however, he thinks otherwise--he entices Jane to Ireland where the battle for her devotion begins. A studied satire of art deco decadence and louche behavior, "Devoted Ladies" is a sharp and glittering satire on female love.

In 1914, when Nicandra is eight, all is well in the grand Irish estate of Deer Forest. Maman is beautiful and adored. Dada, silent and small, mooches contendedly around the stables. Aunt Tossie, of the giant heart and bosom, is widowed but looks splendid in weeds. The butler, the groom, the landsteward, the maids, the men--each has a place and knows it. Then, astonishingly, the perfect surface is shattered: Maman does something too dreadful ever to be spoken of. "What next? Who to love?" asks Nicaranda. And through her growing up and marriage her answer is to swamp those around her with kindness--while gradually the great house crumbles under a weight of manners and misunderstanding.

The Swifts--three sisters of marked eccentricity, defiantly christened April, May, and baby June, and their only brother, one-eyed Jasper--have little in common but some vivid memories of their darling mother and a long lost youth particularly prone to acts of treachery. Into their world comes cousin Leda from Vienna, a visitor from the past, blind but beguiling. Within days, the lifestyle of the Swifts has been dramatically overturned--and desires, dormant for so long, flame fierce and bright like never before. Molly Keane also wrote under the pen name M.J. Farrell; among her many timeless novels are "The Knight of Cheerful Countenance, Conversation Piece, Devoted Ladies, " and "Good Behavior."