Sue Leonard

Saltwater by Jessica Andrews. Sceptre. When a debut novel is described as ground-breaking – and words like reinvention are used, my heart sinks. Because all too often this is just another way of saying that the […]

Vivienne wrote gothic short stories at college, and a science fiction screenplay. After her degree she trained as an English teacher but moved to LA for a year. Returning, she worked as a project manager in […]

Brought up on a farm in Tipperary, Catherine was a bookish child. She studied law in Cork; took a traineeship in Dublin, before heading for Munich where she taught English. “I thought about being a writer […]

For years, Andrew wanted to work in the theatre. But he never really made it. “I was banging my head on the door, doing a lot of poorly paid and unpaid work. So at thirty, I […]

Beginner’s Pluck. A writer since childhood, Oisín published his first short story at 18. “I dropped out of college for a year and wrote fulltime working nights. Then I went back to complete my course.” As […]

Last year, Damian Barr lived in terror, worried that he would die. He wasn’t sick; he didn’t face danger; but he couldn’t bear the thought that his debut novel might not see the light of day. […]

In 2002, when the former Director of the National Gallery, Homan Potterton, brought out his childhood memoir, he didn’t expect that many people would read it. So, when it received positive reviews, and sold extremely well, […]

Brought up in a house without books, speaking Mandarin, Jing-Jing was never read to. She discovered books aged 7, at school. “I loved Roald Dahl. I remember listening to audio tapes, as I read.”  During her […]

Books were scarce in Trinidad, when Claire was growing up there, but she was lucky. “My mum, who is Irish, opened a book shop in our basement.” Claire always kept notebooks, but when it came to […]

There’s been a wealth of fiction coming from Northern Ireland of late, and much of it focuses on the troubles. We’ve heard the story of terrorists; of victims; and of people whose normal lives have been […]

Richard remembers arguing with his mother about the number of books he could take out of the library. “I was always reading,” he says. “And at university I was a tortured writer of terrible poetry. It […]

Tim has been writing novels since he was 15. Leaving Dublin shortly after starting a PhD, he fled to Mexica, and taught English. “After nine months, I met a load of foreign correspondents, and thought they […]