The Collected Plays. Dublin: The Gallery Press, 2016. First Edition. Five Volumes. Publisher’s black cloth boards. Title lettered in gilt to spines, in pictorial dust jackets designed by Basil Blackshaw. A fine bright set.

The Gallery Press, in association with Faber and Faber, has published the Collected Plays of Brian Friel over five volumes. Volume One comprises six early works including, of course, Philadelphia, Here I Come! as well as underrated and neglected plays — The Enemy Within, Crystal and Fox and The Gentle Island.

All four further volumes, including twenty-three other plays and adaptations, appeared in 2016.