Background

Cathy Kelly was born on September 12, 1966, in Belfast, United Kingdom, to Patrick Kelly, an insurance surveyor, and Gabrielle (McAndrew) Bealin-Kelly.

Education

Kelly studied at a convent school. She also attended College of Commerce in Rathmines, Ireland, where she received a certificate in journalism.

Career

Cathy initially worked for thirteen years as a newspaper journalist with a national Irish Sunday newspaper, where she worked in news, features, along with spending time as an agony aunt and the paper’s film critic. However, her overwhelming love was always fiction, and she published her first international bestseller, Woman To Woman, in 1997. The book became a bestseller and inaugurated Kelly's career as a novelist.

She did not become a full-time writer until she had written another two books (She’s The One and Never Too Late) and finally decided to leave the world of journalism in 2001, moving to HarperCollins Publishers at the same time. Someone Like You and What She Wants followed in successive years. In Autumn 2011, Cathy headlined a search for a new writer on ITV’s The Alan Titchmarsh Show. Her novel is It Started With Paris was published by Orion in 2014.

Achievements

• Cathy Kelly is most commonly known as one of the most successful female authors to come out of Ireland since Maeve Binchy. Cathy’s trademark is warm story-telling, and she consistently tops the bestseller lists around the world with books which deal with themes ranging from relationships and marriage to depression and loss, but always with an uplifting message and strong female characters at the heart.
  
  Kelly was named Young Journalist of the Year in 1986. Her sixth novel, Just Between Us, was her first Sunday Times number one bestseller, while her eighth novel, Always and Forever, topped the UK bestseller lists in October 2005, displacing Dan Brown and J. K. Rowling. In 2007, Past Secrets was also a number one paperback bestseller. Lessons in Heartbreak was shortlisted for the Eason Irish Popular Fiction Book of the Year at the Irish Book Awards in April 2009. In September 2009, Once in a Lifetime topped the UK bestseller lists for three weeks. In March 2011, Homecoming achieved the same feat.
  
  

Works

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  • Best of Friends

    (Abby Barton's TV career is taking off and now she and her...)

    2003
  • Just Between Us

    (From international bestselling author Cathy Kelly, a hear...)

    2002
  • What She Wants

    (This book is about weaves a heartwarming tale about a gro...)

    2001
  • Always and Forever

    (In the Irish town of Carrickwell, with its lush, endlessl...)

    2005
  • Letter from Chicago

    (An original short fiction by a popular writer of novels f...)

    2002
  • The House on Willow Street

    (This writing is “warm, lyrical, and fascinating” (Marian ...)

    2012
  • The Perfect Holiday

    (An exclusive short story for World Book Day from one of o...)

    2010
  • Once In a Lifetime

    (This book is about weaves a captivating tale about love, ...)

    2009
  • Christmas Magic

    (Cathy Kelly, the number 1 best-selling author, has create...)

    2011
  • Past Secrets

    (From the outside, the welcoming, garden-adorned houses of...)

    2006
  • Between Sisters

    (Meet the women of Delaney Gardens, a bustling suburban vi...)

    2015
  • Homecoming

    (This comes a witty, warmhearted novel about friendship, f...)

    2010
  • Lessons in Heartbreak

    (This book is about one woman’s journey to truly know the ...)

    2008
  • Someone Like You

    (Cathy Kelly has enjoyed unprecedented success in the UK a...)

    2000
  • Secrets of a Happy Marriage

    (Bess is happy and in love with her new husband Edward, a ...)

    2017
  • The Year that Changed Everything

    (Three women, three birthdays, one year that will change e...)

    2018
  • She's the One 1998
  • Never Too Late 1999
  • The Honey Queen 2013
  • It Started With Paris 2014

Views

In her books, Kelly focuses on the thoughts, needs, lives, and relationships of a variety of female characters. Kelly has stated that the nature of her characters may be the main contributor to her novels' success.

Cathy has a passionate interest in children’s rights and is an ambassador for UNICEF Ireland. Her role for UNICEF is a Global Parent, which means raising funds and awareness for children orphaned by or living with HIV/AIDs.

Quotations: “I choose my subjects from real life - I hope. I write about modem women who have to cope with everything life throws at them. Because I loathe the sort of modem books where the heroines all wear head-to-toe Yves St-Laurent and never have to worry about where their next penny is coming from, I wanted to write books about normal women. I also kept thinking that I wouldn’t go far wrong if I wrote the sort of book I like to read.

Membership

Kelly is a member of the National Union of Journalists.

Connections

In 2010, Cathy married John Sheehan, a company director. The couple has twin sons, Dylan and Murray. Currently, Kelly lives with her family, and their three dogs in Enniskerry, Co Wicklow.

Father:

Patrick Kelly

Mother:

Gabrielle (McAndrew) Bealin-Kelly

husband:

John Sheehan

Son:

Dylan Kelly

Son:

Murray Kelly