Readings by fiction writers Chris Binchy, Claire Kilroy and Nick Laird

CHRIS BINCHY was born in Scotland in 1970 and now lives in Dublin. A graduate of the Creative Writing MA at Trinity College, Dublin, he has been a sushi chef and is now a full-time writer. The Very Man, his first novel, appeared in 2002 and has been described as "Kitchen Confidential meets Nick Hornby" while his second novel People Like Us was published to great acclaim in 2004. Chris Binchy lives in Dublin.

CLAIRE KILROY was born in Dublin in 1973. Her first novel All Summer (2003) was one of the most praised debuts of recent years. In 2002 she received an Arts Council Literature Award and in 2004 the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature. She lives in Dublin.

NICK LAIRD was born in Cookstown in Northern Ireland. He was a scholar at Cambridge University where he won several literary prizes before graduating with a first in English, and was a visiting fellow at Harvard University in 2003. He recently left his job as a commercial litigator at Allen & Overy to write full-time and his first collection of poetry, To a Fault, was published earlier this year by Faber, while his first novel, Utterly Monkey, recently appeared from 4th Estate.