Home Before Night by Hugh Leonard (Penguin, £6.99 in the UK) remains one of my favourite books. It is the story of the author's childhood and teenage years in Dalkey village in the 1930s and 1940s. I laughed aloud again, when I reread it recently, and the characters Aunt Chris, Jack, the dog, Oliver, the mother and the famous Da gleamed from the pages.

A story of love in a family, warts and all, just like many other families, the difference being in the telling.