A collection of letters and postcards written by Samuel Beckett have been sold for £243,200 (€360,000) at auction in London.
Various early editions of some of the novelist's books and plays, including Krapp's Last Tapeand More Pricks Than Kicks, also sold at Sotheby's, scooping more than £28,000 (€41,000) between them.
The cache of correspondence, spanning almost 40 years, were described as the most important series of letters by the writer.
Signed by Beckett, and featuring the Dubliner's famous spidery handwriting, Lot 95 was due to fetch between £150,000 and £200,000 (€220,000 and €300,000).
The writings were original letters and postcards sent to Beckett's friends, painters Henri and Josette Hayden, in which he writes frankly in fluent French about his health, family and work in progress.
Their envelopes and postcards are postmarked from Paris, Dublin, London, Berlin, Stuttgart and Ussy-sur-Marne.
Beckett met the Haydens in 1943 while they took refuge from the Gestapo in the village of Roussillon d'Apt in Vichy France.
Their life-long friendship began with their common love of painting.
PA