Peter Cunningham

Peter Cunningham is an award winning Irish novelist and newspaper columnist. He grew up in Waterford and was educated at Waterpark School, Glenstal Abbey School and University College Dublin. He worked as an accountant and a trader of commodities until 1986 when his first novel was published. Titled 'Noble Lord', it was a thriller, written under the pseudonym Peter Lauder. Later under the pseudonym Peter Wilben he published the Joe Grace Thriller Series.

He is best known however for the historical novels The Sea And The Silence, Tapes Of The River Delta, Consequences Of The Heart and Love In One Edition, which chronicle the lives of local families during the twentieth century, in Monument, the fictional version of Waterford in south-east Ireland, where Cunningham grew up. His novel, The Taoiseach, which was based on the life of former Irish Taoiseach (prime minister) Charles J. Haughey was a controversial bestseller. Capital Sins, a satirical novel, dealt with the collapse of the Irish economy during the financial crisis that began in 2008.Cunningham’s work has attracted a significant amount of critical attention and praise. The Sea And The Silence (translated into French as La Mer et le silence) was awarded the Prix de l’Europe in 2013. This novel also won the Prix Caillou in France and was short-listed for the Prix des Lecteurs du Telégramme. Consequences Of The Heart was short-listed for the Kerry Listowel Writer’s Prize. In 2011 Cunningham won the Cecil Day-Lewis Bursary Award.His fiction is distinguished by its fusing of political material with psychological realism and a lyrical sensitivity to place and people.Peter Cunningham is a member of Aosdána, (the Irish Academy for Arts and Letters). He has judged the Glen Dimplex Literary Awards and the Bantry Festival Writer’s Prize.

He is married to Carol, a Jungian analyst, with whom he has six children. He lives in County Kildare, Ireland.