He has been described as “one of the least known authors of one of the best known books ever written”. To mark the centenary of Bram Stoker’s death in April 1912, great grand-nephew Dacre Stoker will publish ‘The Lost Journal of Bram Stoker: The Dublin Years’, a hitherto forgotten diary of Stoker’s personal writings.

The journal reveals first-hand the real Bram Stoker – a man with a witty sense of humour, a great social awareness and a fledgling writer, who had leanings towards romantic prose – a genre not traditionally associated with the creator of arguably the most gruesome and ghastly literary character ever.

The landscape may be bleak, the weather cold and uninviting. But Scandinavian crime writing is hot at the moment and none more so than that of Stieg Larsson, celebrated author of the gripping Millennium Trilogy, which at last count had sold more than 27 million copies worldwide. The first book, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, has captured the global imagination and that of Hollywood producers and is one of the most anticipated movie releases of the year with its Irish debut slated for December 27.

In the week that Vietnam ratified the Hague Convention on Intercountry adoption, paving the way for Irish couples to adopt from that country once more, images of Kim Phuc immediately raced through my mind. As a nine-year-old Vietnamese girl, her photograph was beamed around the world and to this day, remains one of the most memorable and iconic images of the 20^th century.

At Vision Express this morning with my 14-year old daughter, she got her annual eye test as well as a supplemental retina examination (we have Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP) in the family which is a degenerative eye condition). The last time I was here, I left the premises €280 lighter. Teenagers with deteriorating eyesight and fussy tastes in designer eyeglasses are an expensive business.