John Pilling is Emeritus Professor of English and European Literaturenbsp;at the University of Reading, UK. He edited the Journal of Beckett Studies for ten years, serves on the editorial board of Samuel Beckett Today/Aujourd'hui . and has written or edited numerous books, articles, symposia, and review essays on Beckett for more than thirty years. His special interest and expertise currently is in every aspect of Beckett's life and work in the 1930s.