"Where's Sam?" "Gone to Paris to commit suicide." We read of one fan who wrote to Beckett and received an indecipherable reply. When he eventually made out what it said, he read, "Despair young and never look back." Nothing new, but engaging nonetheless.

Gerry Fitt: Political Chameleon By Michael A Murphy Mercier �20, 401pp MURPHY'S rise-'n'-fall study of Fitt takes in a lot and aims to explain the reasons behind the volte face nature of the man. The mass of contradictions begin with Fitt's stance as the working-class hero in 1966 when he was elected MP for Westminster. Here he is using nationalism and socialism to pursue his political aims. A few years later he carried off one remarkable feat for those times when he actually split the Unionist vote. The book proves that he went to Dublin for arms to protect besieged northern nationalists. The turn in his career comes when he loses confidence in the British Labour party, withdraws support and Thatcher is elected. Murphy argues that Fitt's socialism was not as deep as he believed it to be.

In The Woods By Tana French Hodder Ireland �15, 485pp ON A beautiful summer day three children at play enter a wood near their home in Co Dublin. Only one emerges leaving his pals behind him bloodied, badly battered and dead. The child who escaped was Robert Ryan, who has no idea what he escaped from, even though he is covered in blood. Move the action on 20 years and the same Robert, now Bob, is a member of the Dublin murder squad. Once again the badly beaten and dead body of a child is discovered near the same spot of the earlier bloodbath. Has the same evil monster struck again? Ryan is given the case together with the assistance of his sidekick Cissie Maddox - a wonderful characterisation. The case thickens when they interview the latest victim's family, a weird bunch who ain't revealing all they know.

The Devil's Doctor Renaissance Magic and Science By Philip Ball Arrow �9, 435pp DEAR Philip Theophrastus Bombast von Hohenheim, aka Paracelsus, Renaissance man and chancer. You will love him. You will love Ball's book. Paracelsus claimed he could raise the dead.

He claimed that you could go without food if you planted your feet in clay. He claimed he could create a little human being by taking some semen, allowing it to rot and then planting it into horse dung for 40 days.

He was a horse's arse, but never a boring one.

The proper course for an unmarried man with no use for semen was castration. As Groucho said: "Do not try this at home." Ball brings the man and that wonderful time to leaping life.

The Cloudspotter's Guide By Gavin Pretor-Pinney Sceptre �8, 320pp THE author, a cloud fetishist, would hate to "suffer the monotony of blue skies, day after day". Irish readers will not concur but they will love the whimsy herein. Pretor-Pinney explains what cloud formations dictate your choice of clothing. Ordinary cumulus cloud "weigh as much as 80 elephants!". Yes, I'm sure, but how does he know? Did you ever see a cloud being weighed?

Several characters have walk-on parts. Constable, who painted them best. Keats and Shelley, who loved them. But strangely, not Wordsworth, who wandered lonely as one. Need I say that he was fond of the hooch? Made frequent visits to the drinks cabinet?