Louise Neylon
Growing up on a farm in County Kildare, Louise wanted to be Jacqueline Wilson’s editor. But when her mum took her to Easons to meet the writer, she was devastated. “She just signed my book and […]
Brian Keogh
Brian wrote his first book, aged five, called Professor Souto goes to the moon. Since then, he has been trying to write a novel. “I had all sorts of plots. I’d write a few chapters but […]
Tom Hickey RIP.
I was so sad to hear of the death of the actor Tom Hickey, on May 1st. I have such fond memories of interviewing him for the Irish Examiner back in 2002. Here is the piece […]
Fiona Scarlett
Fiona never thought about writing when she was a child- though she was always an avid reader. At 35, she began making up funny stories for children, and found that she couldn’t stop writing. “Two years […]
Catherine Mangan
As a child brought up in the country, Catherine loved inventing games. And at secondary school she was renowned for writing good stories. “I’ve always written. There are notebooks everywhere!” After college, Catherine moved to […]
Nick Geoghegan
The youngest of three, Nick has always been interested in illustration. “I was always drawing. At the beginning, I’d copy the characters from my comic books, and when I was 7 or 8, I wrote stories […]
Eimear Lawlor
As a child Eimear loved reading. “I read everything,” she says. “My three elder brothers were all into science, and I wanted to be a scientist, but it didn’t happen!” Studying in London, she met […]
Louise Kennedy
An avid reader, devouring 3 or 4 books each week, Louise didn’t start writing until 2014. “My creativity was knocked out of me in secondary school,” she says. Louise worked at FAS, then moved to […]
Alannah Hopkin on Aidan Higgins
I CAN’T REMEMBER WHEN I’VE READ SUCH A MOVING MEMOIR, OR ONE WRITTEN WITH SUCH RAW HONESTY. To read my review, of A Very Strange Man, New Island Books, published in Books Ireland Magazine,in April, 2021. […]
Lisa Harding
Around eight years ago Lisa Harding gave up acting. She had been a successful ingenue – playing Juliette in London, where she gained substantial roles in plays by Tennessee Williams. But later, the parts she was […]
John Ware
John Ware has been passionately interested in history for his entire life. And, specifically, in the events of the First World War. As a child, he devoured war stories – both factual and from his comics, […]
Eithne Shorthall
Eithne Shortall has always been driven. And although, growing up, she wanted to be an actress, or a poet, having decided, for practical purposes to study journalism, she’s never looked back. She went straight from Dublin […]