The Bogman. This item is unavailable.The Bogman

At sixteen, Cahal, an illegitimate orphan, makes the journey from Dublin to the west of Ireland to his grandfather's farm. After ten years in an institution, he is finally free to return to the small village of his birth. His tyrannical grandfather soon arranges for him to marry-for money. But Cabal's feelings for a local girl with a past are strong... In his writing, Macken captures the isolation and poverty of the village-its closed attitudes, its frozen social mores... and its deeply unforgiving nature. 'Comic and touching by turn: the anecdotes glide as smoothly as summer streams; the farming scenes are vividly done; it is all skilfully told with excellent dramatic moments.' Spectator

Walter Macken was born in Galway in 1915. He was a writer of short stories, novels and plays. Originally an actor, principally with the Taibhdhearc in Galway, and The Abbey Theatre, he played lead roles on Broadway in M. J. Molloy's The King of Friday's Men and his own play Home Is the Hero. He also acted in films, notably in Arthur Dreifuss' adaptation of Brendan Behan's The Quare Fellow. He is perhaps best known for his trilogy of Irish historical novels Seek the Fair Land, The Silent People and The Scorching Wind. He passed away in 1967.