Wilderness

About Roddy Doyle

Roddy Doyle was our Guest Editor in October 2011. Click here to see his book selection.

Roddy Doyle was born in Dublin in 1958. His first novel, The Commitments, was published to great acclaim in 1987 and was made into a globally successful film by Alan Parker. The Snapper was published in 1990 and has also been made into a film, directed by Stephen Frears. The Van was shortlisted for the 1991 Booker Prize and made into a film also by Stephen Frears. Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, which won the Booker Prize in 1993, has been published in over twenty languages.

In 1994 he wrote the screenplay for the television drama series, Family.  His plays include Brownbread (1987), War (1989) and, most recently, an updated version of The Playboy of the Western World (2007), which he co-wrote with Bisi Adigun. He has also written a collection of stories, The Deportees (2007) and a memoir of his parents, Rory and Ita (2002). His most recent novel is The Dead Republic (2010), which is the final part of the trilogy, following on from Oh, Play That Thing (2004) and A Star Called Henry (1999).

Roddy’s first children’s book The Giggler Treatment was shortlisted for the WH Smith Children’s Book Award.

Roddy Doyle has won many prizes for his writing.  These include the Booker Prize and a BAFTA screenplay. He has also won the Irish Children's Book of the Year and was shortlisted for the prestigious 2013 CILIP Carnegie Medal.  His novel The Commitments was turned into a blockbuster film directed by Alan Parket and is now a successful musical in Dublin and in London, directed by Jamie Lloyd.