Brendan Behan’s Island. An Irish Sketch-Book. With Drawings by Paul Hogarth. London: Hutchinson, 1962. First Edition. Pp, 192. Buckram boards in pictorial dust jacket. Spotting to jacket & endpapers, otherwise a nice bright copy.

This copy signed by several notable Irish writers & musicians, at the rear endpapers, including: Seamus Heaney, Ronnie Drew, Christy Moore, Sinéad O’Connor, Éamon De Buitléar, etc.

From the snug of the ‘Shaky Man’ (probably the nearest pub to Guinness Brewery in Dublin) Brendan Behan takes us on a tour of his native country. Enlivened with song, poem, story and Paul Hogarth’s drawings.

Paul Hogarth was a direct descendant of famous English illustrator William Hogarth. He spent a year travelling in Ireland with Behan to catch the true spirit of this work.