Reference Titles

100 new crosswords from Irish Times crossword setter Mary O'Brien.

Before television and radio, before penny paperbacks and mass literacy, people would gather on porches, on the steps outside their homes, and tell stories. The storytellers knew their craft and bewitched listeners would sit and listen long into the night as moths flitted around overhead.

The 100 letters collected in this beautifully illustrated book demonstrate the power of the written word to inspire, astonish and entertain. Ranging from ink-inscribed tablets vividly describing life in the Roman Empire to remarkable last wills and testaments, passionate outpourings of love and despair, and succinct notes with deadly consequences.

. Everything is at stake in this compendium of more than 150 ingenious puzzles, selected to reveal the wonderful diversity of brainteasers that have confounded and intrigued solvers for the last thousand years.

From Karl Benz through Bruce McClaren to the "Smart car" - welcome to the definitive guide to the greatest cars you can possibly drive on Earth.