about me

Alan Grainger is an Englishman who emigrated to Ireland at the time when everyone else seemed to be going the other way. He got seduced by the lifestyle, married an Irish woman and never went back.

They have three children and seven grandchildren.

His business career ended unexpectedly early when his company was taken over; and a whole new world of opportunity opened up. Ever since then, other than when he’s watching rugby or cricket, he has been travelling, painting and writing.

His travels have taken him all over the world, provided him with much of the background material that features in his books, and allowed him to choose authentic sets against which he can tell his stories. They should also have inspired him to paint great landscapes but, for reasons, not obvious to him, his paintings almost always turn out of be pictures of stones!

Fortunately his stories are not so one tracked and come in great bursts of inspiration which sometimes stall.

When that happens, he tilts back his chair, puts his feet on the window sill, sips thoughtfully at a glass of Guinness, and stares at the clouds swirling over a nearby rookery.

Sooner or later it all starts up again.

favourite books

My most recent reading enjoyment has come from:
THe Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows.
Salmon Fishing In The Yeman by Paul Torday .
A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian by Marina Lewcka.
and Life of Pi, by Yann Martell.
My old favourites are more diverse: Ulysses(because I find something new in it every time I read it).
Great Expectations (because it's a damned good story).
And, Not a Penny More, Not a penny Less ( Because Jeffrey Archer spins such a good yarn)

my websites