Nuala O'Faolain was born in Dublin and has a BA and MA from UCD and a B. Phil from Oxford. She lectured in the English Department of UCD before moving to England to work for the BBC. Back in Ireland she won a Jacob's award for her work as a television producer with RTE. She taught media studies in what is now DCU, lectured in America and elsewhere on a variety of topics, mostly literary, and presented a books programme on RTE television. She joined The Irish Times as an opinion columnist 12 years ago and was Cross Journalist of the Year the following year. Her bestselling memoir, Are You Somebody? (first published, along with a selection of her journalism, in 1996) has achieved inter- national acclaim. My Dream of You (Michael Joseph, £12.99) is her first novel and will be published on February 1st.