Turtle Bunbury is the author of several books, including The Irish Pub and Ireland's Forgotten Past. He was a co-presenter of The Genealogy Roadshow on RTE television, and also appeared on BBC1's Wogan's Ireland and episodes of the American and Irish versions of the Who Do You Think You Are? TV series.
This fascinating assortment of case histories, spread across 1,400 years and six continents, is an impressive feat of research. All of the chapters are based on a solid body of up-to-date historical writing. The summaries of often complex historical background to the lives explored are models of lucid compression. The short biographies themselves are lively yet judicious, packed with vivid detail but willing, where necessary, to question or dismiss colorful legend. And the reader will come away with a new sense of the many ways in which Ireland has interacted with the world beyond its shores, and of some of the extraordinary careers that have resulted.-- BBC History Magazine (3/23/2021 12:00:00 AM)