The Last Knight, by Robert O’Byrne – review

I have to declare an interest: for many years the Knight and I were the closest of friends until a sequence of his unpredictable and volcanic rages drove us apart. Robert O’Byrne explains how the Knight suffered for most of his life from the illness and strong medication of manic depression. It is a tribute to him that I never knew of this medical diagnosis until much later and that, despite it, he achieved so much in his life, drawing international acclaim to Irish pictures, architecture and furniture and producing so many learned books on their quality and beauty.

In fact there is a photograph in this book of the Knight and I dancing a jig to the melodious tin-whistle music of Paddy Maloney. But in the caption I am described as someone else, albeit a cousin. This has prejudiced my view of the factual accuracy of this book, which has an irritatingly bad index. The title and the front cover are very alluring, but this is not a biography. I hope that will come soon. It is principally a detailed account of the Knight’s lifelong and painstaking research, and of his beautifully designed books.

He wisely wrote most of his books with a partner, in particular the redoubtable and formidable (but charming) Professor Anne Crookshank (Ireland’s Painters and Watercolours of Ireland). The climax of his life’s work was his last book, Irish Furniture, with James Peill, an essential book for any library.

There is also much about his beloved Glin estate, into which he and his wife, Olda, poured every penny available, much of it into its conversion into a five-star hotel, which fared so badly in the recent recession that it had to close. This probably led to the special sale at Christies of much of his life’s work as a collector.