Egg on Myac edited by Sean Power (Gill & Macmillan, £9.99)

A sequel to Those Were The Days, a collection of childhood memories which was also edited by the Fianna Fail TD for Kildare and…

A sequel to Those Were The Days, a collection of childhood memories which was also edited by the Fianna Fail TD for Kildare and whose royalties were also given to Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin, Egg On My Face reveals the most embarrassing moments of some of Ireland's best known visages. A most cosmopolitan collection of gaffes they are, too: Stephen Collins recalls setting fire to a launderette in Chicago, Mary Harney muses upon the lipstick which fell out of her sleeve, right at the feet of Bill Clinton; and Mick McCarthy remembers tripping over the rim of a Japanese stadium and falling flat on his face in front of an expectant crowd. And what about Brendan O'Reilly's learned television exposition of the niceties of Chinese table tennis technique: "The Chinese hold the bat in the same way as they hold (and I couldn't think of chopsticks) their implements when they are eating their (what's this they eat?) spaghetti." And all in a good cause, too.

Arminta Wallace

Arminta Wallace

Arminta Wallace is a former Irish Times journalist