JAMES FENTON, born in 1931, grew up in the adjoining townlands of Drumadarragh and Ballinaloob. Educated at Stranmillis College and Queen's University, he spent his working life as a teacher and principal in Belfast, and now lives in Clengormley. He is the author of The Hamely Tongue.

The Hamely Tongue gave us a comprehensive record of contemporary Ulster-Scots; now, in the poems and prose of Thonner an Thon, the writer's native language comes vividly alive. Through the eyes of the child, the youth, and, finally, the eyes of one who waits 'quait-coorached bae the hab', we indeed 'go down the ways and days' of a world which is sadly passing.