Beckett honour should have been given to a writer

WHEN we, as a country, finally have the chance to pay some hugely overdue respect to Samuel Beckett, arguably the most important modernist of the 20th century, who do we choose to open his centenary celebrations?

Bono. Obviously. Who else would we ask? Not an infinitely more suitable literary figure.

In our scrabbling attempts to claim back our national writers whom we now recognise as marketable commodities, we once again drag this narcissistic, glorified pop star back into the limelight.