The Aran Islands are among the most finely wrought land-masses in the western world. Their antiquity, diversity and cultural richness have made them a source of fascination for writers, romantics, naturalists, linguists, archaeologists, anthropologists and artists, provoking a variety of responses now inscribed upon Ireland's history and literature. An Aran Reader encompasses folklore, fiction, botany, ethnography and autobiography from a wide variety of writers – from Giraldus Cambrensis to Tim Robinson, James Joyce to Derek Mahon, Liam O'Flaherty to Máirtín Ó Direáin, Lady Gregory to Seamus Heaney.