Peter Goulding

The slate quarries were walking distance; they'd have a smoke, a party in an abandoned hut, try and climb something. A small culture emerged of punks, nutters, artists and petty thieves, crawling up abandoned rock, then heading to the disco at the Dolbadarn. These were the Slateheads.The people in these interleaving worlds - the punk dole dropout star- climbers; the Victorian quarrymen pioneers; the Welsh-speaking grandson of a ropeman, abseiling in to bolt sport climbs like Orangutang Overhang in the Noughties, Lee and his mates slogging west today - all are polished like nuggets in this 360 Degrees view over patience, pride, respect, thrill, movement, the competing claims of home and agency, and above all, a belief in second chances.

Simply put, When the Light Goes Out documents Irish lighthouse fatalities from 1786 to 1972. But it is much more than this. In recording these tragic events in chronological order, the book builds into a history of lightkeeping in Ireland from the early years until almost the present day, recording the mostly forgotten stories of people in the service of Irish Lights, and the Ballast Board before it. As such it is a roll-call of honour of those who died while keeping our shores safe for the mariner and the fisherman. It also features many lighthouses that are now defunct or no longer exist, with many illustrations both ancient and modern.

A look at the season of Christmas and winter through the medium of light verse, 'The Arse End of the Year' chronicles the build up to the festive season, the solstice, the day itself and the post-Christmas slothfulness, together with aspects of the cold and dreary winter season so beloved by, well, not many people actually. From the reindeer shaped blips on the air traffic controllers' screen, to the disappearing cheese portions; from forgetting auld acquaintance to the difficulty of burying dead bodies in frosty weather, Peter Goulding gives us a uniquely personal insight into the season in his inimitable style, not that many people would want to imitate it.

Peter Goulding's fourth, or maybe fifth, (who's counting?) book of comic verse again delves the murky depths of the poet's imagination. There are still plenty of poems about murdering his wife and disposing of her body but there are darker poems too - the proliferation of tomatoes on Jupiter, the birth of Princess Charlotte and his critiques of the counties of Tipperary and Offaly, to name but four. His mind, which, to be frank, would be put to much better use, learning a trade or simply vegetating, is again employed solving many of the world's problems in rhyming couplets, villanelles and other fiendish weapons of mass destruction. Comes with a cultural health warning.

In the Waterways Department of the Irish Government, an employee discovers that his last four Hobnobs have been stolen. At approximately the same time, twenty miles away, twenty three packets of Rich Tea biscuits have been lifted from a supermarket in Ashbourne. This is unprecedented in Irish and, indeed, world history. Chief Inspector Jacobs, who had helped to solve the infamous Chocolate Digestive theft of 1994, is summoned to solve the crime before the social order crumbles. Can Jacobs wrap up the case and drag Ireland back from the brink of anarchy? How do they get the figs into the fig rolls? And what is the lighthouse thing about?The Island of Broken Biscuits is a comic novel set over five days. It holds the World Record for mentions of Custard Creams (55) and has been rejected by many, many publishers.

It is a very rare publication that features an author who has absolutely no knowledge of the subject about which he is writing. From his safe suburban armchair in Dublin, Ireland, Peter Goulding has watched countless westerns featuring square-jawed heroes who have battled impossible odds to defeat injuns, outlaws and stampeding cattle. Based on these films and to the abject horror of the literary community, he has written numerous poems of questionable merit about life in the wild west (and indeed in the wild, wild west) and has decided to publish them in this slim volume. From botched gunfights to piles, from eating horses to losing children, this book of vaguely comic vignettes describes a side to the wild west (and indeed the wild, wild west) that probably never existed outside of the author's head.

The story of George and Margaret Geoghegan. George was a foot soldier in the Easter Rising of 1916 in Dublin who managed to achieve some sort of minor fame for being one of the 84 rebels killed in Easter week. His wife Margaret was left to raise their three children in one of the most notorious slums in Europe. The book also details her interminable correspondence with the Army Pensions Board, seeking to gain redress. Also contains genealogical material of the Geoghegan and Ledwidge families of Dublin.

A poetical diary of the 2014 World Cup written in extremely bad verse. The author set himself the target of writing a poem per match and posting each of them up on www.footballpoets.org within 12 hours of the match finishing. Why he did this is a mystery. He hasn't even been arsed to go back over the poems and edit them. This is a sister book to The World Cup 2014 in bad verse and glorious technicolour which at least has the dubious advantage of brightness.

The second volume of comic verse from one of Ireland's premier exponents of the genre, The Six Gifts of Womanhood is Peter Goulding's grudging, anarchic and humorous view of a world gone mad.