A few of Beckett’s associates reminisce about him in the Guardian.

I rather like actor Peter Woodthorpe’s report about the performance of a Beckett play: “On the first night there was only one curtain call and there were boos and cat-calls. But then the whole atmosphere changed - dramatically changed - after the Sunday reviews by Hobson and Tynan.” Makes you think a bit, doesn’t it, about what good a critic can occasionally do?

And then there’s writer Martin Esslin who remembers his first meeting during which he was supposed to find out more about Beckett: “He opened a bottle of whiskey and I thought, my goodness, what a wonderful man. Then I thought, my God, can I ask him ‘Are you married?’ or ‘What about women?’ He was so scathing about this article in The Observer that I thought he would get furious and throw me out. And so I was in this Racinian conflict of conscience, between my duty as a researcher and my duty as a potential friend. In the end my friendship won and I didn’t ask him.” Good for him.

Maud Newton provides a link to the Beckett centenary.