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Flann O'Brien was one of the many pseudonyms of Brian O'Nolan, born in Strabane, County Tyrone in 1911, the fifth of twelve children. He attended University College, Dublin, where he soon established himself as a brilliantly funny speaker at student debates. In 1935, he joined the Irish Civil service and until his retirement in 1953 was Private Secretary to successive Ministers for Local Government. His first novel, At-Swim-Two-Birds, was published in 1939. The book had been recommended by Graham Greene, then a reader at Longman Publishers. On publication it was praised highly by many, including Samuel Beckett and the near-blind James Joyce, who read the novel with the aid of a magnifying glass. O'Brien's second novel, The Third Policeman, was, however, turned down. Disappointed, O'Brien told everyone that he had lost the manuscript. He was not to write another novel in English for almost twenty years. His third novel, The Poor Mouth, was published in 1941 in Gaelic as An Beal Bocht. The Third Policeman was published posthumously in 1967. In 1940, under the pseudonym Myles na Gopaleen (civil servants were not permitted to publish under their real names), O'Brien began his celebrated satirical column in the Irish Times. Unfailingly witty, feared, respected and loved throughout Ireland, `Cruiskeen Lawn' (meaning `Little Brimming Jug'), appeared almost daily for nearly thirty years. O'Brien's journalism is published in several collections, including The Best of Myles and The Hair of the Dogma. In the 1960s, O'Brien began writing novels again — The Hard Life appeared in 1962, The Dalkey Archive in 1964. By now he had retired from the Civil Service and was in poor health. He died, not inappropriately, on April Fools' Day, 1966. BY THE SAME AUTHOR 1111E11 CLASSIC At-Swim-Two-Birds The Third Policeman The Hard Life The Poor Mouth Stories and Plays The Various Lives of Keats and Chapman & The Brother The Hair of the Dogma The Best of Myles Further Cuttings from Cruiskeen Lawn Myles Away from Dublin Myles Before Myles
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