Master story-teller and oracle of all things Derry, Ken McCormack is back with an enchanting collection of tales of northwest Ireland in days gone by.

In The Blackbird and The Canary, you will meet: a manservant who sails from India to Dublin and then walks to Derry; a villainous vicar who meets a horrible end at the hands of a mob; a legendary English travel-writer who falls in love with a Limavady barmaid; and an athletic outlaw who leaps a waterfall to escape the chasing pack, only to wind up on the gallows.

Edited by the late Seán McMahon, this 'lesser-spotted' history also features cursing-stones and centaurs, the word's worst railroad the country's best dam.

'A modern seanchaí, holding his audience in thrall around an imagined turf fire.'