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Tom Phelan

Biography

Tom Phelan

Tom Phelan had just turned 50 when his first novel, IN THE SEASON OF THE DAISIES, was accepted for publication. That novel was later chosen by Barnes and Noble for its Discover Great New Writers series. Since then, Phelan has written five other novels: ISCARIOT, DERRYCLONEY, THE CANAL BRIDGE, NAILER and LIES THE MUSHROOM PICKERS TOLD. Born and reared in Ireland, he now lives in New York.

Photo Credit: Patricia Phelan

Tom Phelan

Books by Tom Phelan

We Were Rich and We Didn't Know It: A Memoir of My Irish Boyhood
by Tom Phelan - Memoir, Nonfiction

Tom Phelan, who was born and raised in County Laois in the Irish midlands, spent his formative years working with his wise and demanding father as he sought to wrest a livelihood from a farm that was often wet, muddy and back-breaking. It was a time before rural electrification, the telephone and indoor plumbing; a time when the main modes of travel were bicycle and animal cart; a time when small farmers struggled to survive and turkey eggs were hatched in the kitchen cupboard; a time when the Church exerted enormous control over Ireland. WE WERE RICH AND WE DIDN’T KNOW IT recounts Tom’s upbringing in an isolated, rural community from the day he was delivered by the local midwife.