Seamus Deane was born in Derry and educated at Queen's University, Belfast and at Cambridge. From 1969-80 he lectured in English at University College, Dublin. He was Professor of Modern English and American Literature at UCD from 198093. He is the author of Celtic Revivals: Essays In Modern Irish Literature 1880-1980, A Short History Of Irish Literature and The French Revolution And Enlightenment In English Literature 1789-1832. He is General Editor of the Field Day Anthology Of Irish Writing, of which three volumes have appeared to date. He has published four collections of poetry.

Seamus Deane's haunting debut Reading In the Dark is a memoir as novel and lyrically evokes Bogside Derry in the 1940s and 1950s through the experiences of a young Catholic boy. The story of a family and its dark unspoken history against a background of political tensions, Deane's novel is both powerful lament and testament to the power of memory.

Reading In The Dark is published by Jonathan Cape