Your mother always knows best – this is a notion as indisputable as gravity and as unswerving as, well, your mother. So what better guiding light do you need in your life than a collection of motherisms from various people in the public eye?

You can just feel the finger wagging along to lines such as “If you’re bored, it’s an insult to yourself”, and “You’d excite a nation”, which sounds like it was followed up by a clip around the ear.

This book contains some typically sage and sound aphorisms and all proceeds will help to fund education initiatives for single mothers in Dublin city centre. My Mother Always Used to Sayby Valerie Bowe is published by Currach Press, €7.99. Laurence Mackin