The Modern Library

About the Author

Carmen Callil was born in Melbourne in 1938. She came to the UK in 1960. A book publisher, she founded Virago in 1972 and ten years later became managing director of Chatto & Windus. She is the author of Bad Faith: A Story of Family and Fatherland, which was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson prize. She lives in London.

Colm Tóibín was born in Ireland in 1955. He is the author of six novels including The Master, which won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction, the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and the Prix Medicis étranger. He has also written short stories, a play and several works of non-fiction. He lives in Dublin.