Born in 1896, Liam O'Flaherty is regarded as one of the most gifted writers Ireland has ever produced. His name is as much associated with recklessness and bravado as with literary achievement: he was handsome and daring, and by the time he was thirty his reputation was enviable. O'Flaherty's buccaneering spirit made him decide to join the Irish Guards: after being invalided out of the British Army in 1917 he travelled to various parts of the world taking all kinds of menial jobs, and it was not until he had been exiled from Ireland in 1922 for a wild escapade in 'The Troubles' that he began to write. He has the Irish gift for humour and vividness; for the basis of his stories he chooses simple situations which he evokes with insight and real charm