James Charles Roy
James Charles Roy is an American “itinerant independent scholar”, writer, and owner of a small Irish castle. “The Back of Beyond” is about his experiences guiding a small group of Americans on a tour of Norman and Celtic Ireland.
Roy is a crank, but a self-deprecating one, which prevents him from sounding mean even when he’s complaining about his charges. He delights in telling them bloody stories of Norman conquerors going native, tales of Irish monks on lonely islands, and accounts of the ruination of various Ascendancy families. The reader gets to enjoy those stories along with Roy’s comments on the tourists and on modern Ireland. The book is a well-written combination of travel, dry humor, and history.