Hubert Butler

Born at the beginning of the last century, Hubert Butler is regarded as a most distinguished Irish essayist, writing in the highest tradition of Swift and Shaw. He graduated from St John's College, Oxford, with a degree in Classics in 1922 and travelled extensively in Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia, Macedonia and Montenegro. Following the Anschluss in 1938, Butler worked with the Quakers in Vienna, expediting the escape of Jews. His essays reflect his experiences in pre-war Eastern Europe, the Balkans, Latvia, Russia and China, as well as Ireland. He died in Maidenhall, Co. Kilkenny, in 1990.