Paul Kearney was born in Ballymena, County Antrim, Northern Ireland in 1967. He studied Anglo-Saxon, Middle English, and Old Norse at Oxford University before spending several years in both the USA and Denmark. He eventually returned to Northern Ireland, and currently lives in County Down with his wife, two dogs, a boat, and a very large quantity of books.

Paul’s first book was The Way to Babylon, published in 1992 by Victor Gollancz. This was followed by Riding the Unicorn in 1994, and A Different Kingdom in 1995, all of which are stand-alone fantasy novels, which met with strong critical regard at the time of their publication. Since then he has published the Monarchies of God series, which ran to five volumes: Hawkwood's Voyage in 1995, The Heretic King in 1996, The Iron Wars in 1999, The Second Empire in 2000, and Ships from the West in 2001. His most recent work is The Mark of Ran, the first volume of The Sea Beggars.

Although Paul’s website is currently under reconstruction, you can read extracts from two of his novels online. These are A Different Kingdom and Ships From the West. You can also read an interview Paul did with Sandy Auden, and which appeared on The Alien Online in October 2004.

Paul’s favourite authors are Patrick O’Brian and JRR Tolkien, and he smokes a pipe and has been known to take a tipple of malt.

We look forward to seeing him at his first appearance at P-CON

Profile by Anne M Kletcha