Sir, – Lara Marlowe's reference to the "Déjeuner Ulysse" of 1929 (An Irishwoman's Diary, May 23rd) recalled a conversation I had in 1980 with James Joyce's friend and translator Nino Frank, who like Samuel Beckett was present at the dinner but absent from the official group photograph. Although Ambassador Niall Burgess speculates that Beckett was "either in the toilet or under the table" at the time, what Nino Frank told me was that he and Beckett slipped out during the wearisome speeches and discovered a children's playground outside the restaurant. Joyce presently observed them through the window having a great time on the swings and seesaws and found the opportunity to come and join them. The more sober of those present did not take kindly to being abandoned by the guest of honour, and everybody was soon bundled back on the bus for the return to Paris. The story of Beckett's alcoholic "pit-stops" along the way (in which he was again accompanied by Frank and the mischievous Joyce) is better known. – Yours, etc,
ROBERT NICHOLSON,
Killiney,
Co Dublin.