WHAT is it about the Irish and their affection for "rogues and rascals"? Something deep in the national psyche, following centuries of foreign rule, that puts a grasping, sometimes murdering, bastard on a plinth just because he has got one over on the authorities? Possibly the least objectionable character in this line-up is Myler McGrath, a 16th-century bishop, a human weathervane who was both Catholic bishop and Protestant Archbishop simultaneously. He blew any way the popular wind dictated. Tiger Roche, an 18th-century rake, so-called because of his engaging habit of sinking his teeth into the throats of his enemies. More recent examples of the species? Paul Singer, born in Bratislava, the original bouncing Czech: "I took the Irish to my heart." In 1960 he took them for over �2m. DeLorean, Ray Burke, CJ Haughey, Des Traynor. Very thin line between "scamps" and common criminals and McArdle walks a surgically thin line.

Croke Park A History
Tim Carey Collins Press,
20, 206pps

WHEN they built the original structure 'The City and Suburban Sports Ground', they erected 17ft walls to keep the hoi polloi from getting in free. Recently, during the Ireland v Cyprus game, the same walls stopped football fans from getting out. That game was Association Football, or soccer, and it's mentioned here just to show how far the GAA has advanced in its thinking since the narrow nationalism of its foundation over 120 years ago. In that period, Croker has staged rodeo, American football, historical pageants, boxing, musical concerts, but shamefully, never soccer or rugby. And let no one say otherwise but the change came about because of money considerations. This is a magnificent production, a compliment to the stadium, well-illustrated and edited. I could only spot one error in the entire book.

The Life of Kingsley Amis
Zachary Leader Vintage Books,
17.85, 996pps
YOU'D expect everything in 996 pages and Leader doesn't disappoint. This massive slab of a book is nothing less than caustic in its scrutiny of the novelist. He was a serial adulterer believing "nice girls didn't sleep with men", which justified his ditching of them. He had an alarmingly cruel nature for a writer of comic prose. During a conversation of South Africa during apartheid, his solution was "shoot as many blacks as possible". He was quite serious. Jews and "queers" were also favourite targets. The more he aged, the more obnoxious he became. Leader blames alcohol, and when you read that Amis averaged �250 a week on booze, you would draw a similar conclusion. And yet there is the mystery of Amis's energy: how could he put away so much drink and continue to write? Given the complexity of the subject and the huge cast of characters, this is an impressive piece of work.

Seize the Hour: When Nixon met Mao Margaret Macmillan
John Murray,
16.70, 384pps

NIXON completed one lasting piece of state business before he was turfed out of office, and this was it: his 1972 meeting with Chairman Mao. This is fascinating stuff. The bargaining. Who got what. How Vietnam was infuriated with the Chinese and moved closer to Moscow. How the Chinese wanted US "sponsorship" of Taiwan to stop. The meetings were a spectacular success that brought China into touch with the West. Also included are sizeable pen portraits of those close to hand: Henry Kissinger, Chou Enlai. Though you will blink as Macmillan admits Mao "became a bit mad over the years".

Only a bit?

The Careful Use of Compliments
Alexander McCall Smith
Little Brown,
15, 246pps
TWEE, prim and ethical. Isabel Dalhousie . . . McCall readers will be familiar . . . used to be possessed precisely all of those qualities. In the latest offering she has broken rank and got herself a baby. Add to that, the father is Jamie, a musician 14 years her junior. Not everyone approves of "the happy event". Diversion comes in the form of a painting Isabel bids for. She is outbid but decides there is something dodgy about the painting and something even dodgier about the unexplained death of the artist. Not for this reader, but millions have been awaiting it.