Blackstaff Press Ltd: 69 books

‘At 16,500 miles it was the world’s longest road: a road on which travellers faced being kidnapped and murdered by Colombian drug barons, buried under Peruvian avalanches, drowned by the Guatemalan rainy season, fleeced by eight-year-old Ecuadorean border touts, driven mad by blackflies in the...

A beautifully written Irish memoir about an extraordinary family. From the author’s great-grandmother Katherine Rose, who made her way from Stratford-upon-Avon to Lisburn as part of the Plantation of Ulster, and her forebear William Blacker, who founded the Orange Order,...

Within the stone walls of Belfast City Cemetery lie those men and women who helped shape the city. From Catholic and Protestant to Muslim and Jew, from the great and the good to the poor and the destitute, each grave has its own tale to tell. In this new edition of his acclaimed publication,...

Now an eminent writer and critic, Patricia Craig was expelled from her convent grammar school at a time when girls from respectable families were never kicked out of school, and certainly not when the ‘offence’ was carrying-on with boys in the sand dunes in the Donegal Gaeltacht while attending...

Did you know that Herr Dobler, Wizard of the World, appeared at the Victoria Hall in Belfast in 1883? Did your granny ever try Dobbin’s Blood Purifier, only available at Dobbin’s Chemist, North Street? And did you hear about the arrest of Jack the Ripper in Memel Street in Belfast in 1888? Welcome...

‘When the story is finished, Muriel and Polly sit in silence. The coloured lights on the fuchsia bush twinkle against the black sea and the black mountain and the black sky. They sit in silence. They let the story settle.’ Drawing on the Irish proverb, Ar Scáth a Chéile...

'I sweyour I shud have stopped Ri Ri from watchin' my Big Fat Gypsy Weddin. How de fuk am I s'posed to pay for dis Communion – de allowance has been got rid of an' Ri Ri's da is in de Joy. Even if he was here, Priz Feechurz wud be about as much use as a nun in a hooer howse. Irregardless, I...

In Six at the Table, regular contributor to RTÉ Sunday Miscellany Sheila Maher tells the story of her childhood through meals shared around the kitchen table – and occasionally from the boot of the car on long family trips – and celebrates the central role that the food lovingly prepared by...

‘There were always just the two of them, Robert and Liam, and there wasn’t one weekend when Robert went racing that Liam wasn’t with him. They were a formidable force, and Robert only needed Liam in his corner, he didn’t need anyone else.’Louise Dunlop, Robert’s widow When road racing...

‘He took out his watch and looked at it. He rested for one minute as timed on his watch. He opened the briefcase and took out a passport and a pair of spectacles. He put the spectacles on and looked at his passport, and realised he was the man in the picture. A gunshot rang out.’ ...

This is the moving and thought-provoking story of a premature baby born when the mother was just 23 weeks pregnant who survived against all the odds. Renowned gynaecologist and obstetrician Jim Dornan tells the story of miracle baby Maisie, who was born in 1929, and explores the issues of miscarriage,...

‘An impressive and thrilling debut that looks corruption in the eye and never blinks.’ DAVID PARK When Noelie Sullivan finds his stolen punk records for sale in a charity shop in Cork, it seems like a lucky break. But Noelie has just made himself and those closest to him a target. Hidden...

Emerging from a people with an absolute belief in ‘the little folk’, the fairy tales of Ireland are part of one of the richest folk literatures in the world. In this wonderful collection of stories by some of Ireland’s finest writers, including Carleton, Yeats and Lady Wilde, a legion...

The Pony Palace is the best riding school ever, and there's no better time to visit than during Summer Camp. Holly, Carrie and Patrick all love riding more than anything, and during camp they get to have a pony of their own and ride every single day! But the riders and their ponies, Barney, Biscuit...