Making it up as I go along - Tara Heavey

'My father left us when I was very small , tiny, in fact. All dreams of a tearful reunion were dashed when, a few years later, he was knocked down by a bus. So it does happen in real life. Let's hope he was wearing clean underwear at the time.'

At 31, Liz Clancy is beginning to wonder how long she can blame her absent father for everything that has gone wrong in her life. Her writer's block, her disastrous penchant for older men, even her curly black hair that frizzes in the rain.

Then her discovery of a photograph of her father stops her in her tracks, and she begins to wonder if the answer to her current dilemmas might lie in the past. Seeking out her father's family in the heart of Dublin's inner city, she meets a larger-than-life cast of characters, who regale her with stories of their exotic Spanish ancestry and their direct connection with the Spanish Armada.

Liz is overwhelmed. Could this explain why she is so shamefully drawn to Julio Iglesias, the Gypsy Kings, to flamenco, paella and all things Spanish? With the help of her fortune-telling grandmother, and a handsome blond friend Eric, himself descended from the Vikings, Liz sets off in search of the missing part of herself and to a new, and surprising future.