The Night Before Christmas, by Alice Taylor (Brandon, IR£5.95)

Alice Taylor's pleasant little books of rural nostalgia obviously have their own, niche and their own readership - and a large one it seems to be, too, to judge from the sales figures. This example runs true to type, a series of evocations of a vanished Ireland which probably sounds nicer in retrospect than it ever was in reality, but is still sweet to remember. The style is reach me down, and the reminiscences of family Rosaries, come all yes, local characters, Christmas shopping in the old style, and family rituals mostly ramble down well worn paths; but older people with a rural background will probably wallow in it all, and younger people too may enjoy it as a description of a lost and seemingly innocent world.