A Raid into a Dark Corner by Benedict Kiely (Cork University Press, £14.99)

This is not a mere reissue, it is a substantial collection by a leading novelist and man of letters of the cream of his essay-writing and literary criticism over several decades. Kate O'Brien, Patrick Boyle, James Stephens, Sean O'Faolain, Daniel Corkery, Frank O'Connor, Canon Sheehan and Mary Lavin are among the prose-writers who come under (generally benevolent) scrutiny, but there are also essays on the poets Seamus Heaney, John Montague, and - leaping back in history - Aodhgan O'Rahilly. Kiely is a critic in the honourable man-of-letters line, neither a pedant nor a populist, and his opinions on other novelists are those of a fellow-practitioner. This is an important book which should not be swallowed up in post-Christmas torpor - especially since literary criticism in this country has never been a flourishing genre.