In Ideas Matter a wide array of Irish and international figures pay tribute to Conor Cruise O'Brien, with a collection of original essays on a wide range of issues which fascinated O'Brien: Irish history and politics, the United Nations, the Middle East, African affairs, American studies, the interplay of literature and politics, Edmund Burke, deTocqueville, Camus, and W.B. Yeats. They also reflect, with admiration and affection, on the highlights of a remarkable career. The broad reach of these topics underscores the scope of O'Brien's concerns. This book will be of interest to students of the humanities and political sciences.
After being a Cambridge postgraduate, a teacher, a marketing executive and a civil servant, Ruth Dudley Edwards became a full-time writer. A journalist, broadcaster, historian and prize-winning biographer who lives in London, her recent non-fiction includes books about The Economist, the Foreign Office, the Orange Order and Fleet Street. The first of her ten satirical mysteries, Corridors of Death, was short-listed for the CWA John Creasey Memorial Dagger; two others were nominated for the CWA Last Laugh Award. Her two short stories appeared respectively in The Economist and the Oxford Book of Detective Stories.