Irish · b. 1966
Cathy Kelly is an Irish novelist and former journalist. She began her career in newspapers in Dublin and published her first novel, Woman to Woman, in 1996. She has since written more than twenty novels about families, friendship and the lives of women in Irish towns and cities, and her books have sold millions of copies worldwide. Several of them have reached number one on the Irish bestseller lists, among them her 2024 novel Sisterhood, her twenty-second. Her best-known titles include Lessons in Heartbreak, Always and Forever, and The House on Willow Street. Kelly is also an ambassador for UNICEF Ireland and has raised money for children's charities through her writing and public work. She lives in County Wicklow with her family. Her fiction is warm and easy to read, built on strong female characters and ordinary people facing hard choices. Her steady popularity with readers in Ireland, Britain and beyond has made her one of the leading names in Irish commercial women's fiction.