All That Fall - Biographical Details

Biographical Details

When writing in French, Beckett stripped his text of biographical detail in an attempt to universalise his characters. With his return to English he also returns to the Dublin suburb of Foxrock for his first radio play. Apart from many uses of common Irish words and phrases, Beckett pulls names, characters and locations from his childhood to deliver a realistic setting for the drama, which is still presented in a manner almost everyone can relate to.

1. Beckett’s mother shopped at Connolly’s Stores and her purchases delivered by van as was customary at the time.
2. Maddy’s journey is from “Brighton Road to Foxrock station” and back again.
3. James Knowlson claims that Maddy was actually inspired by Beckett’s kindergarten teacher Ida “Jack” Elsner. In her later years, when she had trouble riding her bicycle, she was known to fall off and be found “sprawling by the roadside until such a time as a passer-by along to help her up” in a state similar to Maddy after leaving Christy.
4. “The Becketts employed a gardener called Christy.”
5. Beckett bought apples from a market-gardener named Watt Tyler on his walk home from school. The Tylers and Becketts also shared a pew at Tullow Church, the church referred to in the text.
6. Slocum was the surname of his cousin John Beckett’s future wife, Vera.
7. Mr Tully was a local dairyman.
8. Dunne, Maddy’s maiden name, was the local butcher on Bray Road.
9. Miss Fitt’s name, aside from being a wonderful pun, may have been inspired by a classmate of Beckett’s at Portora School named E.G. Fitt or a Rathgar lady resident.
10. The racecourse is Leopardstown Racecourse.
11. Mr Barrell’s name is a nod to Thomas Farrell, “the persnickety railroad stationmaster in the Foxrock of his youth” who often took first prize for the “best-kept” station on the line.
12. When Maddy mentions that the preacher for Sunday is to be Hardy, Dan wonders if this is the author of “How to be Happy though Married?” “There was in Foxrock, in Kerrymount Avenue, a Rev E. Hardy, not to be confused with Edward John Hardy, the author” of the aforementioned book.

Of course, “he events in Beckett's life leave their traces in the shape of his work, without necessarily leaving an inventory in its content.”