Stand and Give Challenge

There is little need to introduce the writings of Francis MacManus. For many years his books have charmed all who have gently relaxed into his world of Irish rural life.
For over three decades, he had been writing in English and Irish for publishers on both sides of the Atlantic. He has written essays, reviews, short stories, biographies, travel books, history and above all, novels. The biographies range from the life of that Italian matter of the sensual, Giovanni Boccaccio, to a life of that most austere of Irish saints, Columban of Bobbio. The novels also range over a wide area of human life - Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, New Mexico in the Twentieth - or as in Stand and Give Challenge, the first volume of a trilogy centred around the life of the famous Irish Poet, Donnacha Mac Conmara. Francis MacManus has been on the staff of Radio Eireann since 1947. He like to travel, especially in Italy, read new books, help young writers and listen to good talk.