Housekeeping for Hallions

What if the secret to a good life was simply caring a great deal less?

Housekeeping for Hallions is an affectionate and wickedly funny guide to the art of living simply, cutting corners with conviction, and finding profound wisdom in cheerful neglect.

A hallion, for the uninitiated, is an Irish term for that most admirable of characters - slightly chaotic, entirely charming, and utterly indifferent to what the neighbours think.

Des Donnelly has distilled the hallion philosophy into an essential handbook covering everything from fridge archaeology and the ethics of eating from the saucepan, to wellington etiquette, the correct attitude to ironing (don't), and why mirrors should always be small or cracked.

Part philosophy, part survival guide, entirely Irish, this book offers an alternative to the relentless pursuit of domestic perfection - a pursuit that, as any hallion will tell you, is largely unnecessary and suspiciously exhausting.

For anyone who has ever boiled an egg in a dirty saucepan, kept a freezer as a form of postponement, or regarded an unmade bed as a sign of good character rather than poor housekeeping, this book will feel like coming home.

Clogher, Co Tyrone. First Edition 2026.