Flann O’Brien (aka Brian O’Nolan) was born in Tyrone in 1911 and worked as a civil servant for many years. He also developed an alter ego, Myles na Gopaleen, whose satirical column in The Irish Times soon acquired legendary status. At Swim-Two-Birds, his first novel, appeared in 1939 and was praised by James Joyce, Graham Greene, Dylan Thomas and others. His second novel, The Third Policeman, failed to find a publisher at the time but has since been acknowledged as one of the most important novels to come out of Ireland in the twentieth century.

With a foreword by acclaimed author Kevin Barry and striking redesign, No Laughing Matter is an undisputed classic of Irish literary biography.

Anthony Cronin was a poet, novelist and critic. Among his prose works are The Last Modernist (1996), Samuel Beckett, Dead as Doornails and The Life of Riley.