Simon Fitz

Many a travel picture book is designed to make us dream, and like its equivalent in the cookery field, we can often gaze lovingly at things that we will have no experience of. Christopher Fitz-Simon's The Most Beautiful Villages of Ireland, however, produces an immediate effect that was probably the author's prime intention: within mere pages of this sumptuously illustrated book, the reader is filled with the keenest desire to visit these exquisitely picturesque locales in Ireland. As a picture of the architectural and bucolic delights of the country, Fitz-Simon's book is thoroughly beguiling. From astonishing spreads of ancient Ireland (such as the stone circles of Drombeg, County Cork, and the 100 ton standing stone at Browneshill) to the quirky eccentricities of such towns as Allihies and Eyeries (in which all the buildings are painted in bright, clashing primary colours), we are taken on a voyage that is almost as stimulating as the real thing. The photographs by Hugh Palmer perfec tly complement Fitz-Simon's sympathetic text, and are not afraid to utilise the massive double-page spreads in a radical way, rather than simply record the various sites. Castle Island, with its striking tower, is seen from a distance, while a great expanse of turbulent blue water covers two pages in the foreground, and the Italianate exoticism of Glengariff is conveyed by a moody shot of the bay and its small boats, overlooked by a balustrade and a bare-breasted stone nymph. Along with such pan oramic views, there is a host of more arcane details, all lovingly recorded: a two-faced Celtic stone figure on Boa Island in Lough Erne which has mystified scholars, or the trompe-l'oeil faade of a shop in Roundstone, County Galway, where everythin g in the window is the result of a painter's brush. The interiors, too, are full of charm: Lissadell House in Rosses Point transports us into another century. But beware: buying this book will almost certainly send you to your local travel agent. --B arry Forshaw--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.