Edward Ruadh Butler

Born in Derry and brought up in Tyrone, Edward Ruadh Butler studied Biomedical Sciences before working in newsrooms, bars, and laboratories, as a security guard, musician, and a lifeguard. A keen reader of historical fiction from his youth, he decided to try and emulate his heroes - Conn Iggulden, Bernard Cornwell, Robert Louis Stevenson, and George MacDonald Fraser - and write an adventure. He began by working on the story during his lunch hour and a year later he had completed the first draft of his debut novel, Swordland. It charts the remarkable career of Robert FitzStephen, a Norman-Welsh warrior who became the first invader of Ireland in 1169.