“I love following up and coming writers, writers who make it,” said an aspiring author to me recently. It took me a moment to realise she was talking about me....

It’s quite hard to judge where this story begins. Getting my first novel published in many ways feels like a journey I have been on most of my life, from...

It might sound odd to say it, but there is no such thing as historical fiction. And yet if you write a literary novel set in the past, let’s say...

About 15 years before android phones or google came into play, I attended a St. Patrick’s Day party in Israel. Most of us were Scottish, Welsh and Irish. A man...

Some years ago now, in the Sultan’s Palace in Istanbul, I stood mesmerised in front of the Topkapi Dagger. The subdued light of the museum case could not dim its...

My first novel, The Convictions of John Delahunt, was a first-person account of a true-life murderer and Dublin Castle informer, and while it was fun at times to inhabit his...

Early Modern History is something we are all taught in school. From its cultural and intellectual life; society and religion; through to politics and the quest for power. There are...

When Ellen Langley died in her home on Barrack Street, Nenagh, Co. Tipperary, in 1849, it was after a week-long illness that left her body haggard and emaciated. The wife...

I have a friend who’s an accomplished musician. He’s passionate, talented, but hasn’t uploaded any piece, or performed his songs live. His music is sitting in a folder on his...

I work late at night. Very late – often until 4am and, in summer, I’m still awake when the sun comes up. It suits me well because it’s quiet then,...