Letters of John B. Keane an Irish Minister State

Every person who has read John B. Keane's bestseller Letters of a Successful T.D. will be familiar with the exploits of Tull MacAdoo who was a rural backbencher. In this book he becomes Minister for Bogland Areas with Special Responsibility for Game and Wildlife. He is a powerful, resourceful and cunning man who can get things done for his 'Number Ones' by 'using every trick in the book and some not in the book'. The reader will chuckle to himself as he enters the web of local intrigue and petty skullduggery among the rural politicians. We also meet Tull's family: his spendthrift son, Mick, at university who will make Tull the laughing stock of the constituency if he fails his exams again, his narrow-minded, martyred, hypochondriac wife who 'suffers from head to toe', and his best-loved child, Kate, in whom he confides his problems. There is also Tull's running feud with James Flannery, the local N.T. Although Tull is a little on the ignorant side he has learned his lessons in the Dail and deals with his opponent not in the most lawful way but in very effective ways.