About me

 

Mike O’Sullivan

 

I am an Irish writer and poet married and living in rural Herefordshire England. I write through a range of themes: - romance - contemporary, historical and coming of age; thrillers - historical, political and crime.  I also write short philosophical or humorous sketches which I publish in themed volumes within a new genre I call Skibbereens. Writing poetry provides a route for quick release of ideas, views, sometimes humour and I publish themed collections from time to time. I have also published a biography reviewing my great grandfather's time as editor of the Irish newspaper The Sligo Champion, a nationalist history which spurred me to pursue my own writing.  My first published work was a management book on credit management which I am now updating. I have another management book in the pipeline - a radical approach to work and lifestyle.

 

I was born in Dublin and spent my school years in Cork from where I moved to London aged twenty. I have worked in a wide range of industries and I use this experience in my writing - music, cosmetics, oil exploration, mining, insurance, catering, publishing, City finance and management consultancy.

 

I am interested in how individuals can battle the system and even without a plan can manage to cope and come out on top. Systems and institutions are usually rigid when it comes to change, quick decisions and turnaround. Institutional logic can trap the individual, so it takes effort, some courage and guile to walk out into the wider world of individual thinking. My aim is to show that an individual can focus enough to even the odds and win through.

 

My own battle started in primary school where I needed to get by the eagle-eyed headmaster who looked hard at my long essays designed to hide the words I couldn't spell. This carried on up the line when at UCD the Professor of English likened me to another who couldn't spell, George Bernard Shaw. But I made the connection, even at that time I didn't have to be a genius at spelling.

 

When I first arrived in London I fell in with a group of three other Irishmen and we spent one night discussing the philosophical processes of making a million or settling down to a life of doing a regular job that was more of a pleasure. I found the job.  In a sense I had a plan for life, and so far it has been working out.

 

 

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