Have you ever seen a badger and tried to remember the name of its home? Or come across a poem and been surprised to know you still remember the whole thing by heart? Have you driven by a steep and rounded cliff by the coast and know you knew the name of it when you were younger? When helping with fractions homework, do you find yourself saying ‘what you do to the bottom you must do to the top’? Or still to this day think ‘i before e, except after c’?A classical education used to be about imparting knowledge. Whether it was the Fenian cycle and Irish mythology or the great rivers, mountains and oceans of the world; learning seanfhocail or the solar system by rote or understanding the structure of a sentence or an equation. In this nostalgic – but also inspiring – book, John Burke shares the joy of knowledge.

In addition, he reminds us of the games we played in school and on the way home, and of special feast days and holidays so that you’ll find yourself yearning for your schooldays once again!