Beth O’Leary
Beth grew up in Winchester, the youngest of six children. “I spent a lot of time reading and writing, retreating from the noise!” She started out by writing Young Adult fiction. “But The Flat Share was…
Kealan Ryan
Films have always been Kealan’s thing. As a student he wanted to work behind the camera and write for the screen, and after college, he stayed home and worked with some camera men before settling down,…
Charlotte Bingham
I’ve always been aware of the writer, Charlotte Bingham. I remember my mother laughing out loud, reading Coronet Among the Weeds, Bingham’s send up of her time as an English debutante, ‘doing’ the season. In the…
Brian Coughlan
After his degree in science, Brian specialised in pharmaceuticals, and has been working in the sector ever since. “I worked for Glaxo Smith Klein in Cork for many years, and then moved to Mylan in Galway.”…
Eleanor O’Reilly
After university, Eleanor went straight into teaching. “I did my teaching practice in Loretto Foxrock. Afterwards they gave me a job, and I was there for two years. Then, in 2001, I moved to Gorey Community…
Sarah Davis Goff
Sarah Davis-Goff is bubbling over with happiness. It showed the moment we met to discuss her dystopian debut novel – last ones left alive. She’s animated as she tells me of her passion for the story,…
Jenny McCartney
Brought up near Belfast the youngest of four, Jenny attended Oxford University, and then she moved to Prague for 18 months. “I worked as a proof reader on the Prague Post, then, after a short time…
Aoife Abbey
Aoife Abbey has always wanted to be a doctor – it was a decision she took as a small child growing up in Dublin, but until she entered medical school in Warwick, and went on to…
Christine Dwyer Hickey
Reading The Narrow Land – a novel set in post-war Cape Cod – is like experiencing the work of Scott F. Fitzgerald. There’s that same atmospheric sense of long hot summers, with people extracting as much…
Mary Jennings
Mary was a studious kid and wasn’t interested in sport. After college, she joined the IT department of Price Waterhouse Cooper becoming a management consultant. She spent a lot of time in London, and friends introduced…
Jane Ryan
Learning to read at 3, Jane was devouring Agatha Christie at nine. Wanting to act, she was accepted at RADA, but her father persuaded her to become an accountant. “I studied with the Institute of Chartered…
Nicole Flattery
Nicole wrote ‘bad poetry’ and some stories as a teenager but stopped when she went to college. “I was a better reader than a writer. And I did a lot of theatre as a teenager. I…