With a degree and two postgrad. diplomas under her belt, Megan worked in Ireland as a secondary-school teacher, ran her own business providing corporate language classes, trained teachers in university and taught English as a second language.

Then, a couple of years ago, everything changed when Megan discovered writing. Within six months she quit her fulltime job; a year after that, she completed her first novel Sunflower Girls and is now well into writing her second, The Eyes of a Boy. She also had a poem published with a local collection and short stories published in Woman’s Way and Ireland’s Own magazines.

Drawing on her experiences of teaching English to foreign nationals, Megan brings an international flavour to her writing. Sunflower Girls is about two young women who, unsatisfied with their dull existence in Dublin, flee to sunny Italy, and change the course of their lives. The Eyes of a Boy tells the story of a lawyer from Afghanistan, and his nine-year-old son, Naher, living in Dublin next door to Fidelma, an energetic hairdresser and Tracy, her timid six-year-old daughter. A firm bond develops between the two children, forcing their parents to overcome initial prejudices and get to know one another.

Megan lives overlooking a beach in north county Dublin with her husband Oisin van Gelderen, Ireland’s windsurfing champion. In the morning she writes and in the afternoon she sneak reads as much as she can in between stocking shelves and urging customers to buy in a local bookshop. Recent achievements include belly dancing in public and playing a leading comic role with her local dramatic society. The rest of the time she swims, dances Jazz Ballet, practises Yoga and goes windsurfing (when it’s not too cold).