Story steeped in voices of times past

The Lightning Tree, by PJ Curtis, Brandon, €15.

PJ Curtis is one of the most respected and innovative radio music broadcasters in Ireland, a man whose eclectic talents, it seems to me, have not always been appreciated by station bosses in this era of broadcasting conformity.

He is a native of the Burren in County Clare and the Lightning Tree, his second novel, is steeped in the landscape, history and traditions of that ...