Peter Cunningham

PETER CUNNINGHAM is an award winning Irish novelist.

He is best known 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.

The Sea and the Silence, Consequences of the Heart, Capital Sins and The Taoiseach are all available as ebooks.

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 La Silence) was awarded the Prix de l'Europe in 2013. This novel was also short-listed for the Prix des Lecteurs du Telégramme and the Prix Caillou.

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.

Under the pseudonym Peter Wilben, he has published the Joe Grace mystery thrillers series which are available in ebook for Kindle.

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