Deirdre Madden is from Toomebridge, County Antrim in Northern Ireland. She was educated at Trinity College, Dublin and at the University of East Anglia. In 1994 she was Writer-in-Residence at University College, Cork and in 1997 was Writer Fellow at Trinity College, Dublin. She has travelled widely in Europe and has spent extended periods of time in both France and Italy. Her novels include The Birds of Innocent Wood, for which she was awarded the Somerset Maugham Prize; Remembering Light and Stone, Nothing is Black, One By One in the Darkness, which was shortlisted for the Orange Prize, and Authenticity. Deirdre Madden lives in Paris.