Mervyn Wall (1908–1997) was an Irish writer and public servant, best known for two satirical fantasy novels about a monk named Fursey.

Life

Wall was born in Rathmines, Dublin. He attended Belvedere College as well as school in Bonn, Germany, and completed a B.A. with the National University of Ireland in 1928. He worked in the public service from 1934 to 1975 - as a civil servant from 1934–48, for Radio Éireann from 1948 to 1957, and as Secretary of the Arts Council from 1957–75.

Career

Wall published novels, short stories and plays, and wrote for a short-lived literary magazine, Ireland Today. Wall wrote two humorous fantasy novels, The Unfortunate Fursey and The Return of Fursey, about the misadventures of a monk in Dark Ages Ireland. The Fursey novels have been highly praised in North America. E. F. Bleiler in The Guide to Supernatural Fiction described The Unfortunate Fursey as "a landmark book in the history of fantasy". Darrell Schweitzer described Wall as "one of the finest comic fantasists ever, but also one of the most neglected." Parke Godwin described both Fursey novels as "pure gold". Wall won an award, the Best European Novel award, for Leaves for the Burning.

Writings

Novels

Plays

Other publications

Personal life

Wall's wife, Frances Feehan, was a theatre and music critic.