Shopfront:  Irish Architectural and Decorative Studies, the sixth volume of the journal of the Irish Georgian Society, is edited by Dr Nicky Figis and this year her subjects include Waterford glass, bookbinding, recently-discovered 18th century Irish wallpapers, Hugh Lane and designs for the Gallery of Modern Art, Dublin.

While all this may suggest a detailed read only for those with a serious interest in the minutiae of Georgian decorative arts and architecture, the collection of essays is easy to flick through.

Particularly interesting is Patricia McCarthy's detailed social history "Vials and travails: how Lord Kildare kept his household in order", about the running of Carton House and Leinster House: it wasn't easy keeping an army of servants described by one Earl as "a band of robbers . . . who pilfer and pillage and constantly debauch . . . and at times, by pimping and intrigue, sell their daughters to swindlers, fortune hunters and vagabonds".

It is available from booksellers countrywide, price €20