Fiona O'Brien had a fairly typical Irish upbringing. Mother: famous beauty and nutty as a jumbo pack of cashews. Father: handsome, dictatiorial, renowned surgeon and connoisseur. After wrestling with a convent education she embarked on an award-winning career in advertising before writing her first novel Charity, published in 2002, followed by the equally successful Sold in 2004. She now lives happily in her old stomping ground of Dublin 4.