"The Best of Myles" brings together the best of Flann O'Brien's newspaper column "Cruiskeen Lawn," written over a nearly thirty-year period. Covering such subjects as plumbers, the justice system, and improbable inventions, O'Brien (whose real name was Brian O'Nolan, though his newspaper pseudonym was Myles na Gopaleen) is replete with zany humor and biting satire directed at the Irish and their preoccupations. Most of all, however, "The Best of Myles" displays O'Brien's unique mastery of language and style.

Flann O'Brien wrote for the provincial National and Leinster Times, adopting the persona of George Knowall, the quizzical and endlessly enquiring country cousin of the metropolitan Myles of Dublin: it is these pieces that are collected in this volume.