A Twisted Root

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, to her great-uncles Frank, Matt, Gerry and Jimmy Tipping, who were all active in nationalism in the 1920s, this astonishing cast of characters brings Irish history to life. ‘My direct and indirect forebears are a wonderfully het