Flann O’Brien Splits the Atom (1967)

Brian O'Nolan was a gift to the world. I periodically re-read Miles, for the sheer joy of the (mostly) english of the catechism of cliché. Guidance to the proust-hater to collect snow in winter in a jar, so when a Proust fanatic comes to the door declaiming "ou sant les neiges d'hier" you can fling the jar at him saying "here" and slam the door shut..

Book mangling services to the discerning non-book reader, to prove your literary chops with pencil notes inside.. then competitive book mangling, cheaper jobs done by running the lawnmower over the books..

He wrote some very odd stuff outside of the odd stuff we all know. I found a book in UQ library on the "not being borrowed, pulp" list and borrowed it: it included a story by O'Nolan about using Sago to end the worlds hunger, and a heroin addict joiner who seals himself up in a room behind the panelling he is installing.

His parody of Joyce caused some offence. I think he found that a good indication he was on-target.

Writing about De Selby and dark sucker theory, totally in the footnotes, which at times become larger than the page of main text..

If you enjoy the third policeman, then "The man who was Thursday" by GK Chesterton might also amuse, although its not as good in my view. Or, "the exploits of Englebrecht the surrealist boxer" by Maurice Richardson, or perhaps "Fuzz against Junk" and "The Hero Maker" by Akbar Del Piombo.

"I am no judge of poetry – the only poem I ever wrote was produced when I was body and soul in the gilded harness of Dame Laudanum – but I think Mr Kavanagh is on the right track here. Perhaps the Irish Times, timeless champion of our peasantry, will oblige us with a series in this strain covering such rural complexities as inflamed goat-udders, warble-pocked shorthorn, contagious abortion, non-ovoid oviducts and nervous disorders among the gentlemen who pay the rent"

I'd add a note to say some more or whisper Latin at the door but I have promises to keep and Myles to go before I sleep...