Joseph O'Connor was born in Dublin. His books include eight previous novels: Cowboys and Indians (Whitbread Prize shortlist), Desperadoes, The Salesman, Inishowen, Star of the Sea (American Library Association Award, Irish Post Award for Fiction, France's Prix Millepages, Italy's Premio Acerbi, Prix Madeleine Zepter for European novel of the year), Redemption Falls, Ghost Light (Dublin One City One Book Novel 2011) and The Thrill of it All. His fiction has been translated into forty languages. He received the 2012 Irish PEN Award for outstanding achievement in literature and in 2014 he was appointed Frank McCourt Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Limerick.

John Seymour was a pioneer of the self-sufficiency movement, and worked as a writer, broadcaster, and activist in support of it.

For much of his life he was a smallholder in Wales. He was the author of numerous books, including The Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live It, The Concise Guide to Self-Sufficiency, and The New Self-Sufficient Gardener. He died in 2004.