The Irish nana is a repository of family history, memory and lore. Sometimes, like the Italian nonna, she is also a 'walking cookbook', carrying the old knowledge of how things were best done.

Alice's own grandmothers, Nana Taylor and Nana Ballyduane, were the first generation after the Great Famine, born in the 1860s. These women taught their families the Irish traditions and habits of homemaking that survived for centuries, and are now almost gone.

Now Alice herself is a nana too, and this book takes us through three generations and almost a century and a half. She explores the old and the new, the 'then' and 'now', the nana of yesteryear and of today, with her characteristic empathy and love.

About the Author
Alice Taylor lives in the village of Innishannon in County Cork, in a house attached to the local supermarket and post office. Her first book, To School Through the Fields, was published in 1988. It was an immediate success and quickly became the biggest selling book ever published in Ireland. Alice has written nearly twenty books since then, largely exploring her beloved village and the ways of life in rural Ireland. She has also written poetry and fiction: her first novel, The Woman of the House, was an immediate bestseller. Most recently, she wrote a children's picture book with her daughter Lena Angland, called Ellie and the Fairy Door. Emma Byrne is a graphic designer and artist. She is a graduate of Central Saint Martins School of Art and Design. She has won numerous awards for her design including The IDI (Irish Design Institute) Graduate Designer of the Year, the IDI Promotional Literature Award for her work on Brown Morning, and a Children's Books Ireland Bisto Merit Award for her work on Something Beginning With P: New Poems from Irish Poets. She has illustrated many books, including Best-Loved Oscar Wilde, Best Loved Yeats, The Most Beautiful Letter in the World by Karl O'Neill, a special edition of Ulysses by James Joyce, and A Terrible Beauty by Mairead Ashe Fitzgerald. She lives in a thatched house in Co. Wexford.

Reviews

I always get very excited when Alice Taylor's latest book arrives on my desk and her newest offering [The Nana] once again does not disappoint ... it's like being wrapped up in a patchwork quilt of Nana's love ... the book is absolutely gorgeous, I would suggest anyone to pick it up and buy it ... a gorgeous present

-- C103's Cork Today with Patricia Messenger

A heart-warming celebration of nanas and grannies up and down the country, Alice Taylor's memoir is like chicken soup for the soul. Reflecting on her memories which go back to her own Nanas, both born in the 1860s, the book remembers the special place they hold in the Irish family ... brings her trademark empathy and warmth to these pages

-- Woman's Way

That's going to fill many a Christmas stocking this Christmas, that's for sure ... another wonderful, wonderful read

-- The Tommy Marren Show - MidWest Radio

one of the most beloved authors in the country ... I love the illustrations, the butter churn, the good china, the handbag, the chest of drawers... and so on! ... It's a lovely, lovely book ... you're on the money again with it ... It'll be a lovely gift to give to someone in your life this Christmas time to remind them of times past or ... to remind them what the essence of the nana actually is

-- Gerry Kelly's Late Lunch - LMFM



Book Information
ISBN 9781788494441
Author Alice Taylor
Format Paperback
Page Count 240
Imprint Brandon
Publisher O'Brien Press Ltd
Weight(grams) 326g
Dimensions(mm) 216mm * 135mm * 23mm