That Man Booker Prize Again Critics and reviewers have struggled to discuss Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go, second favourite for this year's Man Booker prize next month. This is primarily due to the twist in the plot, one that unlike a thriller is slowly revealed – even a hint at the main thrust of the tale will lessen your enjoyment of the revelation. The reader finds out what's going on at the same pace and time as Ruth, Tommy & Karen, the children attending Hailsham boarding school who grow to adulthood in the story.

Katie O'Brien's last novel, As Music and Splendour, has been republished. Review by Eamon Maher

The new novel from John Berendt – the man who brought Savannah, Georgia to readers all over the world in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil – is set in Venice and based on the mysterious fire that erupted inside the grand old Venetian opera house in 1996

Every now and then I come across a really special place, a gem so special that I have mixed feelings about revealing its whereabouts. Should I write about it, or will I keep this discovery all to myself? What if gets unbearably busy, expands, loses its magic?
Pink-washed Finca Buenvino emerges from the oak and chestnut woods at the end of a winding country avenue, in the middle of the Sierra de Aracena Nature Reserve in Andalucia in Spain.

DARINA'S RECIPE OF THE WEEK Queso de Cabra con Miel - Goat Cheese with Honey on Toast (eaten at the local restaurant in Los Arieros in Andalucia) *1 slice of sour dough or yeast bread *soft goat cheese, eg. Ardsallagh, St Tola *honey *thyme leaves Toast or chargrill the bread.Cut the slice of toasted bread into strips approx one inch thickness. Reassemble the slice as you transfer it onto a small baking sheet. Top with slices of goat cheese. Sprinkle with some fresh thyme leaves and drizzle with honey.

The avant garde had a distinctly retro look at the Fringe last week. Project's downstairs theatre space may be more used to experimental, abstract productions, but for the entire week it was transformed into a cross between a GP's waiting room and a talk-show studio. The Framemakers crew had spent the preceding days wandering through Temple Bar, begging and borrowing furniture and decorations for their Seven Days of Everything project. The result was an elegant brown leather suite (replete with its product-placement price tag), some art on the walls and various bits of eclectic clutter.

The final programme in Pauric Dempsey's series on Icons of Irish Science was inspirational. He interviewed Professor Jocelyn Bell Burnell who, while still a PhD Student at Cambridge, was the first person to discover pulsars. This discovery was the first step in verifying the existence of black holes. Professor Bell Burnell spoke about her youth spent outside Lurgan in a house called Solitude. She failed her 11-plus exam but went on to be the only woman in the physics class of her year at the University of Glasgow.

In one of the more bizarre episodes of Father Ted, Irish television executives faced with the appalling vista of having to stage the Eurovision song contest every year, contrive upon a device to ensure that Ireland would fail miserably in the event. They selected the most hopeless song ever written, 'My Lovely Horse' by Father Ted Crilley and Father Dougal Maguire.

A new photography exhibition by James Morris looks at the West African butabu, a mud building constructed by the whole community. Billy Leahy examines this unique phenomenon

I've been listening to local radio recently. A lot of local radio. The Phonographic Performance Ireland (PPI) Radio Awards 2005 will be presented at a ceremony at the Burlington Hotel next month. I found myself nominated some time ago as a member of the adjudication panel for the current affairs entries and for the overall Station of the Year Award.