Kaleidoscope 
Roddy Doyle was born in Dublin in 1958. He is the author of eleven novels, among which The Commitments (1987), The Snapper (1990), Paddy Clarke Ha ha ha (1993), for which he won the Booker Prize, The Woman Who Walked Into Doors (1996), A Star Called Henry (1999) and, most recently, Smile (2017). He has also written two collections of stories and a memoir of his parents, Rory and Ita. He co-wrote Roy Keane’s memoir The Second Half (2014). He has written eight books for children, and also writes for stage and screen. His stage adaptation of The Snapper was first performed at the Gate Theatre in Dublin, in June 2018. A feature film, Rosie, for which he wrote the screenplay, had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, in September 2018. He is co-founder and chairperson of Fighting Words (founded in 2009), an organisation which provides free mentoring in creative writing to children and young people.
Photo credit: Jon Kay, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Kaleidoscope