This is the second of two collections of MacNeice's prose writings, prepared by Alan Heuser. The first, concentrating on his literary criticism, came out in 1987 (still available from OUP). The present collection will be of interest to a wider readership, since it covers the sweep of MacNeice's many ardently-pursued interests outside the strictly literary: philosophy and travel, history, autobiography, Ireland (the country of his birth, and one of the mainsprings of his writing of both prose and poetry), India, Greece - and rugby football. The volume also contains the 'London letters', written during the Blitz; and a previously unpublished piece: Northern Ireland and her People. These writings convey the visual perceptiveness, humour, seriousness, and enthusiasm of MacNeice's personality and poetry: they are more than simply reflections of the decades in which they were written (from the thirties to the early sixties), revealing MacNeice's particular gifts as a writer, and throwing light on his personality and preoccupations. The complete bibliography of the shorter prose, included in Selected Literary Criticism of Louis MacNeice, is repeated here; and there is annotation and an index.

This title also appears in the Oxford General Books catalogue for Autumn 1990.

Louis MacNeice's profile page

Alan Heuser's profile page

Alan Heuser is at McGill University, Montreal.

'...a generous and thoroughly annotated gathering of fugitive material. ...there is much that is well worth resurrecting, of interest to more than just the comparatively small circle of MacNeice...' Review of English Studies

'Alan Heuser's selection is ... well judged to reveal lesser-known facets of a personality that remains curiously enigmatic ... meticulous annotations' Times Literary Supplement

'The book has a useful bibliography of MacNeice's short prose which reminds us how the overspill of creativity into quotidian tasks may well be a mark, a proof indeed, of the drive and the energy so necessary in a writer whose finer work will continue to attract readers and give them pleasure.' Norman Jeffares, Yorkshire Post

'the book is a delight ... this is an unfamiliar MacNeice - convivial, amusing, even lighthearted' Catholic Herald