Author Frank Delaney has said "hatchet jobs" from Irish critics on his new book would not bother him.
The Co Tipperary-born writer/broadcaster has just published a 500-page novel Ireland about his native country.
Delaney, who now lives in New York, said: "Worrying about what they will say in Ireland is not something that has ever cost me a second thought."
However, the former RTÉ and BBC presenter said that the only thing that really bothered him was criticism from critics he respected.
But the 61-year-old quickly added: "Somebody you really respect doesn't do hatchet jobs anyway."
Delaney, who made BBC's award-winning series The Celts and fronted The Book Show on Sky, has been working on his 16th book for the past 14 years.
Ireland is about an itinerant storyteller or seanchaí who spurs on a young boy to learn about his country's history, including landmark events like the Famine and the 1916 Rising.
Delaney said: "In Ireland we invent our history every time we tell it - that's why it is never boring. We embellish it all the time. But nowhere in this book does it say that this is a history of Ireland."
Delaney was an RTÉ newscaster and journalist in Dublin before moving to London in 1978 to begin an award-winning career making arts documentaries and historical series for the BBC.
Ireland is published by Time Warner Books on Thursday.