Val Mulkerns

Val Mulkerns was born in Dublin on St. Valentine's Day, 1925. And just in time for Christmas, her long-awaited memoir, "Friends With The Enemy" is about to hit the shelves and the screens!

Val's writing has been described by Sebastian Barry as, “a masterly writer in the tradition of Seán Ó Faoláin” and in an Irish Times review of her collection, "Memory and Desire" last year, Anne Enright noted that in her work, “liberalising, Shavian voices form a neglected strand of the Irish tradition.”

It's no surprise then, that this new book is a mellow, beautifully written tome that takes in almost 70 years of life and times in literary Ireland.

In 2016, a selection of her short fiction, "Memory and Desire" was published by 451 Editions, and her memoir is published by the same house. See more at: http:///www.451Editions.com

Growing up in an artistic family, her father was J.J. Mulkerns, a Dublin actor and writer of satirical verse. Following a stint in the Irish Civil Service, she moved to England, where she worked as a teacher. After returning to Ireland in the 50s, she became an associate editor and theatre critic with The Bell, a famed Irish literary review founded by Sean O'Faolain.

Her two early novels were A Time Outworn (1951), and A Peacock Cry (1954). She married fellow-writer Maurice Kennedy, and while raising a family in the decade that followed, she worked as a journalist, wrote short stories - for which she has received particular renown - and penned two children's books with Benziger of Zurich.

She published three collections of short stories: Antiquities (André Deutsch); An Idle Woman (Poolbeg, 1980) and A Friend of Don Juan (John Murray, 1988). Two novels followed, The Summerhouse (John Murray, 1984) and Very Like A Whale (John Murray 1986).

She is included in several key Irish literature anthologies, including The Field Day Anthology (Edited by Seamus Deane), The Penguin Book of Irish Fiction (edited by Colm Tóibín) and The Granta Book of The Irish Short Story edited by Anne Enright.

She edited a posthumous collection of Maurice Kennedy's work, The Way to Vladivostok, in 2000. Living just outside Dublin, she broadcasts frequently on Sunday Miscellany, a programme of writers' original reflections on RTE, and in 2013 brought out a second edition of her acclaimed novel, The Summerhouse. Val Mulkerns is a member of Aosdána, the Affiliation of Creative Artists in Ireland and see more on her website, www.ValMulkerns.com