I've heard mixed reports of those later books – that they're a patchwork stitched together by editors, rather than something Behan signed off on. What did you make of it?

Confessions is the most readable of the three posthumous Behan books that Rae Jeffs transcribed from tapes of Behan. Behan dictated quite a lot of the book so there's some sense of authorial voice. Brendan Behan's Island and Brendan Behan's New York are avoidable cut-and-paste jobs.