John McGahern was born in Dublin in 1934 and brought up in the West of Ireland. A graduate of University College, Dublin, he worked as a primary school teacher and held various academic posts at universities in Britain, Ireland and America. He was the author of six highly acclaimed novels and four collections of short stories, and the recipient of numerous awards and honours, including a Society of Authors Travelling Scholarship, the American-Irish Award, the Prix Etrangère Ecureuil and the Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. Amongst Women, which won both the GPA and the Irish Times Award, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and made into a four-part BBC television series. McGahern died in 2006.
Frank Shovlin is Professor of Irish Literature in English at the Institute of Irish Studies, University of Liverpool. He was educated at University College Galway where he took BA and MA degrees before m
