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Dr Alan Kelly`s wonderful new book reassesses the rivalry between the two great Anglo-Norman magnate families in late medieval and early modern Ireland, putting forward a new interpretation of events. The Fitzgerald Earls of Kildare and the Butler Earls of Ormond were the foremost old colonial magnates in the late medieval Lordship of Ireland. Rivals for power and influence throughout the island but in particular for the post of chief governor, the principal representative of the English crown in Ireland, their struggle for mastery expressed itself in multiple ways ranging from competition for cultural hegemony to outright military confrontation. This book, based on extensive original research including hitherto unexplored evidence from literary sources and material culture, argues that the Kildare-Ormond rivalry was a subtle and sophisticated conflict between two different concepts of what Ireland should be.

Dr Máté Vince`s excellent new book explores ideas about concealing the truth while seemingly revealing it. It is about the conflict, whether historical or fictional, between the interrogator`s desire to gain information, the suspect`s desire to hide the information, and the divine prohibition against lying. The Gunpowder Plot supposedly led to the revelation of the doctrine of equivocation, a secret teaching of the Roman Catholic Church that enabled concealing one`s intentions and knowledge without lying. This book examines conflicting meanings of `equivocation` to show how contemporary writers made sense of the theological-political debates, and how this in turn shaped their writings and understanding of how language works.