Dublin's statues and monuments hold the key to Irish history and achievement. People from all walks of life are immortalised as part of the capital's streetscape. In Statues and Stories - Dublin's Monuments Unveiled, award-winning travel writer Muriel Bolger offers her readers a little bit of fact, a little bit of scandal, a little bit of history and a little bit of enjoyment as they walk around her home town.

This pocketsize guide, illustrated with original line drawings and full colour photographs throughout, includes more than 130 statues, sculptures and monuments around the city, along with the history behind them and the people who crafted them.

Muriel points out that Dubliners have their own brand of wit and it's no secret that as soon as a new monument or statue is unveiled it is seldom referred to by its rightful name, but rather by whichever soubriquet has taken the fancy of the masses. Thus the fish peddler Molly Malone is known as the 'Tart with the Cart' and the Anna Livia water feature, formerly in O'Connell Street, was quickly dubbed the 'Floozie in the Jacuzzi', the 'Whore in the Sewer' and the 'Bride in the Tide'. Muriel Bolger's guide is informative, witty and user-friendly.

Dublin-born journalist MURIEL BOLGER's favourite motto is 'plumen in manu, iter faciam' which loosely translates as 'have pen will travel'. Over the past 18 years she has written extensively on travel, architecture, gardens and interiors for a range of national publications. An award winning travel writer, she enjoys the thrill of exploring new destinations, experiencing new cultures and discovering unique traditions.

"Travelling so much it's easy to neglect your own culture and be wooed by the foreignness of things abroad. Researching this book was a revelation as it allowed me time to study my own roots and culture in greater detail - and to learn a lot of the history which I had paid no attention to at school. Dublin is peppered with intriguing statues and monuments which really do provide us with a link to the characters and historical events which formed our society, and which inspired earlier generations."

This is Muriel's second book with Ashfield Press.