<p><b>¿A strange, original and unusual novel, which takes two unlikely worlds and yokes them together. Remarkable ¿ I¿ve never read anything quite like it¿ Carlo Gebler</b><b></b></p><p>Dolly Considine runs a late-night drinking establishment catering to the needs of thirsty politicians and theatricals in Dublin''s legendary drinking area, the Catacombs.<br></p><p>Julian Ryder (aka Paddy Butler) is an eighteen-year-old aspiring writer in need of shelter from his bullying older brother.</p><p>As the new live-in lounge assistant at Dolly Considine¿s Hotel, Julian soon embroils himself in the shebeen¿s gossip ¿ and the guests¿ bedsheets ¿ and turns Dolly¿s entourage into fodder for his literary ambitions. Reality quickly becomes difficult to separate from fantasy¿</p><p>Set against the run-up to the Pro-life Constitutional Amendment of September 1983 and moving fluidly between the 1950s of Dolly¿s youth and Julian¿s Summer of Unrequited Love, the hotel becomes a stage for farce and traged