Roddy Doyle Biography

Roddy Doyle

Doyle's work is rooted in his experience as a schoolteacher in working-class Dublin. International recognition came when his second novel, The Commitments (1987), the story of Jimmy Rabbitte and his attempts to get an Irish soul-music band off the ground, was made into a movie by Alan Parker in 1991. His subsequent novels, The Snapper (1990) and The Van (1991), continuing the saga of the comic and chaotic Rabbitte family, were also made into movies. In 1993, Doyle won the Booker Award for Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha. Doyle moved on to darker topics with The Woman who Walked into Doors (1996), the story of a physically abused woman, and A Star Called Henry (1999), about a precocious hero of the 1916 Easter Rebellion who addresses his audience while still in his mother's womb. He wrote the screenplay to When Brendan Met Trudy (2000), which was directed by Kieron J. Walsh. He lives in Dublin with his wife and their two sons.