​Côte d’Or – book review

When an author’s acknowledgements include a thank you to Johann Sebastian Bach for his music, which ‘steadied the ship when dither and doubt banished inspiration’, then you can make a fairly confident prediction that his writing will be informed by a love of classic beauty, of quiet order and balanced composition, of no-frills honesty. 

It also hints at one of the key influences on his life – and thereby, one would assume, his work – who happens to be Fionnuala...