I was born in Dublin, and grew up during one of Ireland’s very popular economic recessions. If you’ve seen the movie Sing Street, it was pretty much like that. If you haven’t seen the movie Sing Street, go away and don’t come back until you have. You can thank me later.

In my twenties I joined the ‘brain drain’ of young people leaving the country looking for work – or just somewhere that had decent wine bars. I wasn’t really qualified for a brain drain, but no one called me on it, so I went to London to seek my fortune. I had a lot of fun looking, but never found it, and I eventually gave up and moved back to Dublin. Luckily it had become a much nicer place to live while I was away. More like the TV show Friends. Or Sex and the City.

I’ve had more jobs than I can remember (literally – I once came across a ‘Sorry You’re Leaving’ card during a declutter, and didn’t recognise a single name on it). Now I’m a full-time writer, which is the job I’ve been training for all my life. The training mainly involved staring into space a lot, fantasising about hot men and dreaming up funny, sexy stories in my head. I aced it.

I’m happily single, and lucky to live surrounded by my large extended family, who bring me oodles of joy. Other things/people that make me happy include huevos rancheros, whiskey sour, Han Solo, jigsaws, Joni Mitchell and Captain James T. Kirk of the Starship Enterprise.

My writing role models are Jilly Cooper, and Joan Wilder from Romancing the Stone.