But even still he found himself unable to say certain things he really wanted to. Then, while in recovery from surgery, he travelled to a cottage on the Atlantic coast and thought again about life and the people who had profoundly affected him over the years: mentors, loves and old friends.

There at the ocean he wrote letters, with an intimacy not previously risked. Letters that would never be posted but that appear now in All the Things Left Unsaid - a vulnerable and beautifully wrought collection of insights into life, death, friendship and love.

'Hilarious, and tender ...and always beautifully written' Kevin Barry

'Often funny, occasionally disturbing ... Harding has peeled back his soul and held it out on the palm of his hand for all to see' Christine Dwyer Hickey

'It's rare for a memoir to demand such intense emotional involvement and rarer still for it to be so fully rewarded' The Sunday Times

'Searingly honest ... Harding's narrative seems to rest on the pulse of Ireland' The Irish Times