Bram Stoker (1847–1912) was born in Dublin and graduated from Trinity College with BA and MA degrees. After working as a theatre critic, he escaped the monotony of a career in the Irish Civil Service by accepting the job of manager of the Lyceum Theatre in London, which he ran for 27 years. Through the actor Henry Irving (who owned the Lyceum), Stoker became acquainted with leading artistic figures of the day, including Arthur Conan Doyle, and he also travelled widely with Irving, for many years spending summer holidays on the Aberdeenshire coast, where he would concentrate on writing. Dracula was his fifth novel, and it was to have an impact and an enduring appeal its author could never have foreseen. Inspired by a visit to the Yorkshire coastal town of Whitby and Stoker’s research into Central European folklore, the novel reinvigorated the genre of horror literature and has inspired countless adaptations in film and other media. Bram Stoker died at his home in St George’s Square, Pimlico, in 1912.
John Banville was born in Wexford, Ireland, in 1945. He joined The Irish Press as a sub-editor in 1969 and continued to work in journalism for over 30 years. He won the Man Booker Prize for The Sea in 2005, the Franz Kafka Prize in 2011 and the Irish PEN Award for Outstanding Achievement in Irish Literature in 2013. He has also published numerous crime novels under the pseudonym ’Benjamin Black’.