Martin Amis was born in Oxford in 1949. His first novel, The Rachel Papers, was published in 1973, when he was 24, and won the Somerset Maugham Award that year. He is the author of two collections of stories, six collections of non-fiction and ten novels. His most recent book, The Second Plane, is a collection of essays, reviews, and two remarkable short stories on the subject of the post 9/11 global situation.

Benjamin Black is the pseudonym of John Banville, widely regarded as one of Ireland 's great prose stylists and the author of ten novels including the Booker Prize-winning The Sea (2006). Banville's late conversion to genre fiction raised a few eyebrows but only for as long as it took the curious to discover his marvellously evocative Dublin noir crime series featuring his protagonist, the lugubrious pathologist Quirke. The third in the series, The Lemur, is published in October 2008.

John Connolly was born in Dublin and worked as a freelance journalist for the Irish Times before turning his hand to crime fiction. His first Charlie Parker novel, Every Dead Thing, was published in 1991 since when he has gone on to write another eight novels, most recently, The Reapers (2008.) John Connolly is based in Dublin but divides his time between his native city and the United States , where each of his novels has been set.

Joseph O'Connor is one of Ireland 's foremost contemporary novelists. His first novel, Cowboys and Indians (1991) was shortlisted for The Whitbread Prize. It was his 2002 novel Star of the Sea, however, which catapulted him to international prominence when it was selected as an Oprah Winfrey Book Club choice. The sequel, Redemption Falls (2007) was shortlisted for the Hughes & Hughes Irish Novel of the year. He lives in South Dublin .

Multi-talented Rebecca Miller is a screenwriter, movie director, short story writer and now, with the publication of her first novel, The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, a highly-successful novelist. The novel was selected for the Richard & Judy Summer Read's campaign and has since gone on to achieve bestseller status in both Britain and the UK . A movie version is already nearing completion. She lives with her family in Ireland and New York .

Anthony Horowitz is perhaps the busiest writer in England and certainly among the most popular. He has been writing since the age of eight, and professionally since the age of twenty. In addition to the highly successful Alex Rider books Anthony has also written the Diamond Brothers series. He has written episodes of several popular TV crime series, including Poirot, Murder in Mind, Midsomer Murders and the television series Foyle's War. To whet the appetite of his legions of teenage fans, there are more Alex Rider novels in the works to look forward to.

Marian Keyes is a publishing phenomenon. A comparatively late starter, she is now one of the most successful Irish novelists of all time with massive international sales of any new novel virtually certain. A passionate defender of women's popular fiction and a wonderful comic stylist, she frequently explores the darker side of relationships most notably in her newest novel This Charming Man which deals with the tough subject of abusive partners.

Isabel Fonseca was born in New York and educated at Columbia and Oxford . She was an assistant editor at the Times Literary Supplement and has written for a wide range of publications, including the Wall Street Journal, the Economist, the Guardian and Vogue. Her first book, Bury Me Standing: The Gypsies and their Journey was an international bestseller. Her new novel, Attachment, an unflinching depiction of desire, has attracted fulsome praise not least from Richard Ford.

Hugo Hamilton was born in Dublin of Irish-German parentage. He has brought elements of his dual identity to his novels but most notably to his extraordinary memoirs of growing up in South Dublin , The Speckled People (2003) and The Sailor in the Wardrobe (2006). His latest novel, Disguise, which traces the central historical importance of Berlin throughout the twentieth century has enjoyed a wonderfully warm critical reception.

Gerald Dawe was born in Belfast in 1952. He has published seven collections of poetry the latest of which is Points West (2008.) Not alone is he a distinguished poet of international reputation, he is also a Senior Lecturer in English and Director of the Oscar Wilde Centre for Irish Writing, at Trinity College where he has nurtured a generation of young Irish literary talent. Gerald Dawe lives in County Dublin .

In the world of Irish books, Sarah Webb has been variously a bookseller, marketing consultant, occasional journalist, promoter and champion of children's books, and most notably, a hugely successful writer of women's fiction. Her seven novels have all been bestsellers and the latest is When the Boys are Away. A new series of children's books is slated for the spring of 2009. She lives in South Dublin with her partner and three children.

Declan Hughes made his name as a co-founder of the Rough Magic Theatre Company and as a successful playwright and screenwriter. More recently, while adapting a crime novel for the screen, he decided that he could do every bit as well himself and began working on a series of crime novels set in his native South Dublin . The Ed Loy series which followed has established him in the front rank of Irish crime writers. The Dying Breed was published in the spring of 2008.

Anita Notaro was formerly a TV producer, journalist and director who worked for RTE for eighteen years. She has directed the Eurovision Song Contest and the Irish General Election, as well as programmes for the BBC and Channel 4. She is the author of four novels: Back After the Break, Behind the Scenes, The WWW Club, and Take a Look at Me Now, the last of which won the Galaxy Popular Fiction Award at the 2008 Irish Book Awards.

Brian McGilloway hails from Derry. He studied English at Queens University Belfast, where he was active in student theatre. He is currently Head of English at St. Columb's College, Derry . McGilloway's debut crime thriller, Borderlands was shortlisted for a Crime Writers' Association Dagger award. Recently, he signed a three-book deal with Pan Macmillan. The first of these, Gallows Lane , was published in April, 2008.

Julia Kelly made a startling fictional debut with her novel "With My Lazy Eye" which won the Irish Book Awards Best Newcomer category in 2008. It tells the story of a myopic, muddle-headed little girl and her relationship with her distant father. John Banville called Julia Kelly "the freshest voice in Irish fiction since the wonderful early novels of Edna O'Brien" and she has since gone on to win a major publishing deal with Quercus in the UK .

Lia Mills is the author of two novels, Another Alice and Nothing Simple the second of which was shortlisted for the Irish Book Awards Novel of the Year category in 2005. Lia's latest book is In Your Face (Penguin 2007), a biographical account of her battle with cancer. She and her husband, Simon, have three daughters. They live in Dublin .

Martina Devlin was born in Omagh, Co Tyrone. She worked as a journalist in London for seven years before settling near the sea in Dublin . She started writing fiction in her spare time after winning a Hennessy Literary Award in 1996. This was followed by four novels: Three Wise Men, Be Careful What You Wish For, Venus Reborn and Temptation. Then came The Hollow Heart, a memoir about her efforts to come to terms with infertility. Her sixth book, Ship of Dreams, was inspired by her great grand-uncle, who drowned on the Titanic.

Sinéad Moriarty was born and raised in Dublin where she grew up surrounded by books. Her mother is an author of children's books. It was at the age of thirty, while working as a journalist in London that she first began to write fiction after joining a creative writing group. Four bestselling novels soon followed and a fifth, Whose Life is it Anyway, is currently riding high in the bestseller lists.

Gene Kerrigan grew up in Cabra West, Dublin . He writes for Ireland 's largest-selling Sunday newspaper, The Sunday Independent. He is the author of a number of books on true crime, Irish political life, and more recently, crime novels including the bestselling Little Criminals and The Midnight Choir. His new novel, Dark Times in the City, is published by Secker Harvill in early 2009.

Born in Dublin , Alex Barclay was working as a freelance journalist before she wrote the first three chapters of her bestselling first novel ‘Darkhouse’. She sent them to renowned UK agent Darley Anderson who immediately called and asked for the rest. Since that early success, Alex has gone on to establish herself among the burgeoning ranks of successful Irish crime writers. A new novel, Blood Runs Cold, will be published in late 2008.

Tana French grew up in Ireland, Italy, the US and Malawi , and has lived in Dublin since 1990. She trained as a professional actress at Trinity College , Dublin , and has worked in theatre, film and voiceover. Her crime fiction debut In the Woods was a massive bestseller and was nominated in the Irish Book Awards Best Newcomer category. Her new novel The Likeness has just been published.

Declan Burke was born in Sligo in 1969. A freelance writer, Declan is a regular contributor to the Sunday Times, the Irish Times, the Sunday Business Post and the Last Word programme on Today FM. He is the author of two crime novels, The Big O (2007) and Eight Ball Boogie (2003). He blogs at Crime Always Pays, a popular site devoted to Irish crime fiction. He is married to Aileen, and they have a beautiful baby daughter, Lily. He lives in Wicklow , Ireland .

Ruth Dudley Edwards lives in London but was born and educated in Dublin .  She has been a teacher, marketing executive, civil servant and, finally, a biographer, historian, freelance journalist and broadcaster.  The targets of her satirical novels include the civil service, gentlemen’s clubs, the Church of England, publishing, literary prizes and the peace process (The Anglo-Irish Murders).  Her latest, Murdering Americans, is set on an American campus where knee-jerk liberalism and political correctness hold sway.