Clair Wills's The Best Are Leaving is an important and wide-ranging study of representations of Irish emigrant culture and of Irish immigrants in Britain in post-war Europe. It analyses stereotypes of the Irish across a range of discourses, including official documents; sociological texts; documentary fiction and memoir; and Irish realist fiction, drama, and film.

Clair Wills's The Best Are Leaving is a study of representations of Irish emigrant culture and of Irish immigrants in Britain.