FREE MONEY
By Declan Lynch

‘...sometimes I wonder if gambling is the most powerful of all the addictions, the purest form of addiction in that it doesn’t involve you taking any substance up your nose, or drinking anything or eating anything, and it definitely doesn’t involve your staying too late at the office.’

Last year, Declan Lynch took on a new research project, in the interest of science, and pushed the limits of an addiction made much easier by the internet. Combining his love and deep knowledge of sport with the ease of placing bets using his credit card, despite, or maybe because of, the hairy moments and nail-biting close matches, he enjoyed every moment of it.

Follow Declan’s year of spread betting and fluctuating bank account details. Gauge the state of his nervous system, especially during last summer when Wimbledon, the European Cup Finals and the Flat Racing Season coincided! Hanging out in the bookies these days is a multi-media experience, with banks of screens, and matches and races going off simultaneously, with the added excitement of money changing hands, and free newspapers (no, not the appointments section).The online facility is ‘cleaner’ and makes it possible to juggle all these complicated tasks!

‘Without all that sport on TV, I don’t believe that my internet gambling would be nearly as enjoyable. And I’m sure the same goes for my brethren in the global fellowship of punters’. But then, Declan , by his own admission, bets conservatively (on Roger Federer and Tiger Woods, who he compares to Blue Chip investments), and never wagered beyond his means. At no time did he feel driven back into the treatment room.
But, to the results of his important research. Declan’s ruminations on the nature of addiction (the ‘new sin’) are nothing short of brilliant. Now, I’m a woman, and I managed to back the winner in this year’s Irish Grand National at 33/1. How did I do it? Well, I’d say it was a combination of prayer, excitement, superstition, and divine guidance! But in reality, I liked the name of the horse (‘Market Niche’) and I remembered something my brother said ‘Always put it on the nose’(go for a win). The book has a glossary of betting terms to help you.

More about me..I only had a fiver on the horse. Yes, I did go back to the same bookies and place 3 further bets: Two losses (Horses), and One, balancing, win (a forecast on greyhounds)- because now I felt I was playing with ‘the bookies money’. On the day of the English Grand National, a week earlier, I ‘studied’ the form, and picked an Irish horse, who finished the race, but who died on the way out of the enclosure, his heart burst.

Now, this should make me weep normally. But a true gambler is only interested in results, and I reflected, that ‘if’ I had been using my feminine intuition that day, I ‘might’ have picked a horse with a French name, Mon Mome, the 100/1 outsider, and I ‘might’ have been under a better spell for picking winners that day had the bookies not been crammed with amateurs.

Now online gambling removes all these distractions (though you might miss the aul’ fellas), and Declan fears for our nation, and world, with such excitement available in your own home. He fears especially for women who think they know something about sport, and a new generation of gamblers who never came up ‘normally’, at the racetrack in Dundalk and at the local bookies in Blackrock, as Declan did. As he says: ‘And after all, I turned out alright’.

THE SAVAGE GARDEN
By Mark Mills
(HarperCollins©2007)

‘…the house attracted ill-luck to itself, like a flame draws moths…’

File this under Creativity. Set in post World War I Italy, on a Tuscan estate, the garden, created by Federico as a memorial to his dead wife has a macabre atmosphere and sombre beauty.

The book is an historical murder mystery of an ancestral crime. The riddle is contained in the very arrangement and design of the garden to be solved by our sleuth.

The statues are the clues, referencing the work of classical Italian philosophers. Our noble hero, though frightened by the ominous gloom and foreboding, revisits the garden over and over to unlock the code, and rifles through family files and notes in the library to confirm his suspicions.

The locals, and his hosts at the villa keep dropping hints and warnings. What’s more, the top floor of the villa has been completely sealed off, unused and unseen, and can only be accessed by a small key.

Our art student has a morbid curiosity to go in, for it is an untouched murder scene, a frozen moment in time. He is distracted briefly, by his unpredictable brother, who insists on coming over from England to visit.

The solution to this mystery is where the disciplines– art, architecture, literature, science and philosophy– meet. There is a map of the savage garden, and the story unfolds slowly, very slowly sometimes.

Conversations are heated discussions about art, or are about family skeletons of the past. If you like the countryside of olive groves, orchards and terraces, and Italian cities of cathedrals, galleries and museums, you’ll love this. There are some great descriptive passages about Italian art and architecture.

Otherwise, you might need more patience, finding it like an art house movie, without the sound or subtitles, or like watching a fresco dry! Might be worth it though, as matters eventually do reach a head, and there is a very satisfying denouement.

Overall, I found it a relaxing read; a great book to take on holidays, especially if you are lucky enough to be travelling to Italy.