Circe's Cup, by Clare Carroll
Running through my list of books read this year, I realised I'd missed this one which I read in January. It's a collection of essays on culture and politics in early modern Ireland - more looking at the period immediately after my own focus of interest, but relevant none the less in challenging the reader to new thinking about colonial rhetoric and the political intention behind writing. There's a chapter on Spenser, of course, and another on Machiavelli; there are also several pieces on relations between Ireland and Spain, the rival imperial power. I'll come back to it some day when I have a chance.