Following the great response to The Book of Weather Eye in 2008, Anne McWilliams, wife of the late Brendan McWilliams, has compiled this further selection of his articles. Chosen from the columns written in the last year of his life, it is all the more touching for knowing that the unique voice of this gifted, gentle and hugely intelligent man was about to fall silent.

This new collection is a worthy successor to The Book of Weather Eye. It will delight all who welcomed that collection, which prompted the following short letter to the Irish Times from Senator Feargal Quinn:

`Madam, What a joy to see the late Brendan McWilliams in his once accustomed spot in Monday's edition, and a delight to read his article on Madame Bovary. I look forward to buying The Book of Weather Eye this week.'

`If few popular writers succeed in carving such a niche for themselves that they become irreplaceable, then Brendan McWilliams was surely the exception. His daily Weather Eye column, which ran in The Irish Times for almost twenty years, conveyed eloquently the popular aspects of meteorology, climate, astronomy and the environment. Easy to digest and sprinkled lightly with literature, history, folklore and mischievous humour, it was often the first article to which readers turned each morning.' Stephen McWilliams, from the foreword to The Book of the Weather Eye