‘Quite useless’ – The biting rejection letters of Brian Friel

The ‘Dancing at Lughnasa’ playwright’s early years are chronicled in a new book

The photo of Brian Friel used in ‘The New York Times’ obituary of the writer

Emily Hourican

In 1962, two years after giving up his job as a schoolteacher to pursue writing full-time, Brian Friel – then still more of a short story writer than a playwright – introduced himself to the readers of his new Irish Press column: “I spend the greater part of my working day in a back room at the top of the house. It is a damp, depressing room, and I hate it very much.

"My wife, with her doubtful gift for putting a nice skin on things, calls it The Study; and if that suggests a large, well-lit, high-ceilinged, oak-panelled apartment, nothing would please her better or be further from the truth.” He confessed that “I spend a lot of my time gazing out of the window.”