Our Writers
Patrick knew he wanted to be a storyteller from the age of six, when he discovered that a rich interior life was a lot more fun than everyday life.
He has worked as an actor and theatre director, producer, drama lecturer, workshop leader and playwright. His theatre work has taken him to America, France, Eastern Europe, Scandinavia and Colombia, as well as theatres and festivals throughout the UK and Ireland. He performs two solo shows, including the award-winning adaptation of The Life and Times of Archy and Mehitabel.
Patrick also worked as a tour guide all around Ireland for over twenty years and, somewhere along those winding Irish roads, Bogboy was born. This is a true story in everything but the detail.
Patrick Kealey
Martin Gray taught for twenty-four years at the University of Stirling. Extended visits to Cameroon and Australia provided new insights and interests.
He has two Scottish children. Every summer, the family threw everything into the back of an elderly Fiat and drove to Italy, to stay in Camigliano, a tiny village in mountainous southern Tuscany. Two books were the fruit of these peaceful retreats: The Penguin Book of the Bicycle (with R Watson) and A Dictionary of Literary Terms.
Nearly twenty-five years ago, he started a travel company. Small in scale, but modestly large in ambition, Learn Italy takes groups to enjoy that country’s culture, history and bustling present-day reality.
Martin Gray
Laura R Gray
Born and raised in Scotland, Laura Gray studied English Literature at Somerville College, University of Oxford. The day after her last exam, she had her wisdom teeth removed, sold her belongings and moved to Italy. Her intention was to conclude the previous year’s summer romance before returning to real life. Instead, she married him and they now have three children. She has lived there ever since.
​
She had the good fortune to find herself in Montalcino, a beautiful hilltop town in the heart of Tuscany, where the prestigious wine Brunello di Montalcino DOCG is produced. The leap from books into wine was inevitable. Laura qualified as a sommelier in 2004, and was the CEO and manager of a small winery for twenty years. Since 2022, she has worked freelance as a winery whisperer as well as running bespoke art history tours.
Heidi Edmundson
Heidi Edmundson was born by the sea and grew up with the legends of Northern Ireland’s spectacular Causeway Coast. As a child, she was fascinated by myths and fairy tales of all kinds. She was an avid reader of mystery stories. Her love of crime fiction continued into adolescence when, one summer, she discovered a box full of Agatha Christie books with the original Fontana covers.
​
She studied medicine at Dundee University and currently lives in North London where she has been a consultant in Emergency Medicine for over ten years. She is a passionate advocate for staff wellbeing and building positive workplace cultures. During the COVID pandemic she experienced first-hand the importance of having a daily creative practice to manage stress and anxiety. She originally planned to only write a short story but surprised herself by discovering that she had a lot more to say and she enjoyed creating a crime to solve as much as reading about one.
Sue Turbett
Sue Turbett worked in BBC TV News and Current Affairs as a Director and Producer for many years before leaving to set up her own video production business. She now brings her passion for travel, and empowering stories, to life in her debut novel Eagle Sister. Inspired by real-world events and the extraordinary women she has met, Sue’s story-telling centres on themes of self-discovery, resilience, family and loyalty, celebrating the strength of women. She is drawn to narratives where female protagonists grapple with their predetermined paths, overcome adversity, and find strength in unexpected places.
Sue lives in Buckinghamshire, and is now working on her second novel, in between hill walking, running, volunteering, cold water swimming and ag foghlaim Gaeilge.
David Algar