Nothing is Written in Stone: The Notebooks of Justin Keating edited by Barbara Hussey and Anna Kealy 

Justin Keating (1930–2009), perhaps best known as a Labour Party politician, was also a senator, MEP, scientist, journalist, veterinarian, educator, award-winning television pioneer and broadcaster, a documentary filmmaker and farmer. A lifelong atheist, he became president of the Humanist Association of Ireland.

This absorbing book chronicles Keating’s personal and political odyssey, from earliest memories to old age. Genial, conversational and emphatic in tone, he was a candid raconteur, whether writing about Noël Browne, Sean McBride, Garret FitzGerald, Charles Haughey, Conor Cruise-O’Brien and their era, admitting ‘I have been in love four and a half times,’ or mapping his journey from the Marxism of his youth towards ardently felt, Green-leaning social democracy.

Edited posthumously by his wife, Barbara Hussey, Justin Keating’s notebooks are an in-depth, impassioned account of the interests and opinions of one of Ireland’s most wide-ranging intellectuals. His prescience encompassed the perils of nationalism, the future of the Left and of Europe, civil liberties, globalization, religion and sexuality, science, education, women’s health, ecology and respect for the natural world. Nothing Is Written in Stone forms a brilliant self-portrait of this multi-faceted radical, whose vision of Ireland and the world remains of enduring relevance.

‘As Keating himself pointed out at the beginning, there were no revelations to be had.   At times it reads like a novel, at other times it is clear his intended audience was himself.   Despite the admission that poor documentation had been retained and the apprehension that it will be of little value to the historian, the book is engaging, and the author comes across as genuine.  There are valuable passages within, which the historian can find useful. ‘ – The Irish Story

‘One man’s candid opinion of what he observed during an active political life.’ – Irish Examiner