The occasion to have to break bad news to someone comes to everyone. It is, as Alan Palmer points out, simply a fact of life, yet how often it is badly, even damagingly handled. He focuses on resolving the conflict between the instinct of the person breaking the bad news to do so ‘gently’ can…

The World of Books

Brian Boru and the Battle of Clontarf

Why Can the Dead Do Such Great Things?

(Irish Jesuits / Ave Maria Press, €3.75)

by G. K. Chesterton (Penguin Books, €10.00/£6.99)

Pope Francis (Crossroad Publishing /Veritas, €23.99/£18.10)

Patriot and Man of Peace

Queen of the Hearth

Nation and Nazione