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…

John Toland’s Letters to Serena, edited by Ian Leask (Four Courts Press, €45.00/£47.70)

A Mystic in Search of a Unifying Truth: Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, by Dr Ellen Galvin RSC (Kindle Edition, €1.52/£1.28; complete paperback edition from Amazon.com, €50.65; ISBN 978-1489530431)

Peter Hegarty The 40-year ordeal of civil war and dictatorship left a deep imprint on Spanish culture and the Spanish collective memory. What Spain remembers – and forgets – are the subjects of a profound and elegant book informed by its author’s deep familiarity with the country’s language, art and culture, which he zealously wishes…

Pope John Paul II by Hugh Costello (History Press, €8.50/£6.99)

The World of Books

Brian Boru and the Battle of Clontarf