[only works up to 1977 represented]

William Trevor is one of the most prolific writers to have emerged from modern Ireland. A novelist and short-story writer, he was born in Mitchelstown, County Cork, and educated at Trinity College, Dublin. He worked briefly as a teacher, and later as an advertising copywriter, and during this time he was also a sculptor, exhibiting frequently in Dublin and London. He has published more than forty novels and collections of short stories, and is acclaimed in both forms of writing. His short story collections include The Day We Got Drunk on Cake and Other Stories (1967), The Ballroom of Romance and Other Stories (1972), Angels at the Ritz and Other Stories (1975) and Beyond the Pale (1981), and he has adapted a number of his stories for the stage, television and radio.

His fiction, set mainly in Ireland and England, ranges from black comedies to stories exploring Irish history and politics, and often contain a subversive undertone. His early novels include The Old Boys (1964), winner of the Hawthornden Prize, and Mrs Eckdorf in O'Neill's Hotel (1969). The Children of Dynmouth (1976) and Fools of Fortune (1983) both won the Whitbread Novel Award, and Felicia's Journey (1994), the story of a young Irish girl who becomes the victim of a sexual sociopath, won both the Whitbread Book of the Year and the Sunday Express Book of the Year awards. More recently, The Hill Bachelors (2000), a collection of short stories, won both the PEN/Macmillan Silver Pen Award for Short Stories and the Irish Times Irish Literature Prize for Fiction in 2001, while The Story of Lucy Gault (2002) was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. He published a collection of short stories on adultery called A Bit on the Side (2004), and his latest book is Cheating at Canasta (2007).

In addition to his many literary awards, he was presented with an honorary KBE in 2002 for his services to literature, and made a Companion of Literature in 1994. He is also a member of the Irish Academy of Letters, and was awarded the David Cohen British Literature Prize by the Arts Council of England in 1999 in recognition of his work. He currently lives and writes in Devon.

Recent books:

Cheating at Canasta (Penguin: 2007)

A Bit on the Side (Penguin: 2005)

The Story of Lucy Gault (Penguin: 2002)

The Hill Bachelors (Penguin: 2000)