Flann O’Brien (aka Myles na gCopaleen, Brian O’Nolan), Irish civil servant and toper, was a novelist, journalist, critic, playwright, and comic writer of genius. He died on April Fool’s Day, 1966, aged fifty-five. He is a cult hero whose comic genius has been praised by anyone who is anyone – from James Joyce to Graham Greene, Dylan Thomas to Anthony Burgess, Brendan Behan to S.J.Perelman.