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Buffy The Vampire Slayer actor Nicholas Brendon (54) dies
Brendon was best known for playing Xander on the series, which aired from 1997 to 2003
Nick Cave: ‘How did I stay so young? Twenty years of drug addiction and a good face cream’
The singer, an artist for the ages, on living with grief, attending the Oscars and enjoying ‘that mad, loony energy of the Irish’
House of Guinness actor Danielle Galligan: ‘People say I choose interesting roles. Choose? I’m begging people to hire me!’
The Spilt Milk, Walsh Sisters and House of Guinness star on experimental theatre, moving to London and working with Marian Keyes
Mike Joyce: ‘If you thought the Smiths were boring, you weren’t at our Irish gigs’
The Smiths drummer on his memoir, his Irish background, Sinéad O’Connor and Morrissey
A Far-Flung Life by ML Stedman: An epic and intimate family saga
Author’s descriptive talent and prose anchor the story in place, a vast sheep station in remote Western Australia
Minor Black Figures: a searingly intelligent critique of contemporary culture
Acclaimed author Brandon Taylor’s new novel is less romance novel and more dissection of art in the age of identity politics
A Rebel and a Traitor by Rory Carroll: Thrilling account of a key figure in Irish history
Author expertly arranges a huge range of characters and locations in absorbing story about Roger Casement
Helenio Herrera: Football’s Original Master of the Dark Arts
A riveting ride both on and off the pitch, beautifully crafted and impressively researched
Tayari Jones: ‘I used to be very suspicious of writers who said the story chose them’
The award-winning US author ‘refused to write historically’, but Kin, her new novel, is set in the 1960s. She explains why
Rasputin and the Downfall of the Romanovs by Antony Beevor: perhaps a mirror for our troubled times
A dual examination of the decline of imperial Russia and the backdrop against which Rasputin’s influence was enabled
Enough Said by Alan Bennett: eclecticism of fourth diaries collection ultimately charms
Diaries are notable as the internal record of a thinking, feeling person behind the icon
Four Night Seas by Niamh Mac Cabe: A quiet, subtle capturing of cultural identity without resort to cliche
These strange, yet strangely familiar short stories encapsulate the distinctive Irishness of the rural west
Books in brief: Frank Shouldice’s moving tale charts a risky road-trip toward healing
Beneath the Cedar Tree by Frank Shouldice; How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder by Nina McConigley; Wise: Finding purpose, meaning and wisdom beyond the midpoint of life by Frank Tallis
Chuck Norris was unique among movie stars for being tough as characters he played
By the 1980s, he was a new kind of celebrity – among the first stars to profit from the rise of home video
