The Swimmers by Chloe Lane.
Gallic Books London: €13.95. Kindle: €6.15. The Swimmers, by this debut author from New Zealand, takes place over just five days. It’s the Queen’s Birthday Holiday weekend in suburban New Zealand, and Erin is spending the…
Claire Alexander.
As a child, Claire Alexander lived in her imagination. “I was active and had lots of friends, but reading and writing stories became my safe place.” After her degree, Claire did some freelance work for a…
Barbara Scully.
A lifelong reader, Barbara has always enjoyed travel. “I always wanted to be an air hostess,” she says. “Aer Lingus was impossibly glamorous – the hostesses were like ambassadors for the country.” She grew too tall,…
Aingeala Flannery.
At 15, Aingeala wrote Junior GAA reports for the Clondalkin Echo. But after college, with unemployment rife, she taught Secondary School Irish. “After a year I went off travelling,” she says. “I spent my twenties…
Niamh Prior
As a child Niamh spent a lot of time reading, and the rest of the time enjoying the outdoors. “I swam a lot in the sea,” she says. After leaving Brunel University, she went to…
Olivia Hope
Olivia has always loved children, playing with them, and working with them. “I was the big kid in primary school looking after the junior infants, and as a teen I was always coaching younger groups.”…
Amanda Geard.
Amanda has always loved reading and writing. “I loved creative writing at school, but I adored science too.” Choosing geology, she’s travelled the world, from the Equator to the Arctic. She went across West Africa, to…
Cristin Leach.
As a child, Cristín was surrounded by art. “There was art in our home, and we often visited galleries,” she says. “It was a seamless part of my childhood.” Her first job was reading the news…
Bob Johnston
A lifelong reader Bob almost ‘lived’ in the library. “From 12 I read anything, from Stephen King and James Herbert, to my Mum’s Jilly Cooper. And I worked in the local bookshop at 17.” Bob’s plan…
Sophie Irwin
Sophie wrote as a child but stopped at 15 out of embarrassment. After university she worked from home for the Great Taste Awards. “Then I moved to London and worked as PA to the Managing…
Deirdre Finnerty.
After graduating with a PhD in languages, Deirdre turned to journalism. “I did an internship with the BBC, and they told me about a training scheme. I became the year’s global trainee working on international news,…
Niamh Hargan.
Niamh has always believed that she would write a novel. “It seemed a very standard aspiration,” she says. “As normal as buying a house.” After training as a solicitor in a commercial law firm in…