Christopher Fitz-Simon was born in Belfast. He studied Modern Languages & Literature at Trinity College, Dublin. After working in the theatre and broadcasting in North America he became a drama director with RTÉ televison. Since then he has been Artistic Director of the Lyric Theatre, Belfast, the Irish Theatre Company and the National Theatre Society (Abbey Theatre, Dublin). He was Visting Professor in Drama at the University of Ulster, whence his Doctorate in Letters. He is the author of a large number of broadcast plays as well as dramatisations of, among others, Boucicault, Bowen, Colum, Forzano, Giraudoux, Joyce, Forrest Reid, Somerville & Ross, Stoker and Wilde. He lectures throughout the world on Irish theatrical and literary topics. He is the author of an acclaimed childhood memoir, Eleven Houses (Penguin 2007) that deals with the theme of internal migration. He was born into an extraordinary family, with Daniel O’Connell on one side and Ulster Protestants on the other. Eleven Houses deals with the period of World War II when his family lived in a series of homes in all four provinces of Ireland. He is a member of the Clogher Historical Society and recently gave a reading in Monaghan based on a collection of over fifty letters written home to Smithborough by his great great uncle Ben Elliott, who at the age of 17 emigrated to America when famine was at its worst in Ireland. He is a member of the Clogher Historical Society and recently gave a reading in Monaghan based on a collection of over fifty letters written home to Smithborough by his great great uncle Ben Elliott, who at the age of 17 emigrated to America when famine was at its worst in Ireland.