Anne Chambers is a novelist, screenplay writer and biographer. She holds an MA in History from the National University of Ireland.

She started writing she says 'out of curiosity', about the women who was to have the greatest impact on her own life, Grace O'Malley.

'As a child I had heard about the folk stories, the legend of Granuaile. But in our Irish history books, there was no mention of her. Was she fact or fiction? As an adult I simply had to find out.'

The voyage of discovery for Anne took four years, trawling through 16th century manuscripts and documents, in public and private collections, in Ireland and in Britain. Eventually she found her heroine, imprisoned within the swirls and flourishes of these brittle, parchment documents and found also that where Grace O'Malley was concerned, fact was indeed stranger than the proverbial fiction.

With Grace O'Malley restored to the pages of history, Anne found other women (and men) who had also been written out for various reasons principally, like Grace O'Malley, because they simply did not fit the mould required of them by later generations of Irish historians writing with a different ideological perspective in mind.

' On a personal basis, over the years I have come to realise how much I owe Granuaile. It is fair to say that she has changed my life, leading me on my own voyage of self-discovery; making me abandon one career mid-stream for the precarious life of a writer; sending me half-way around the world, to tell her story from Connemara to Kingston. Every year since the publication of the first edition of the biography, I have been involved in some project or other, from music to film to sculpture, about her. She simply won't go away, and I'm not sure if I want her to, I've got so used to having her around!!'

Anne has written and lectured in Ireland, America, Canada, Jamaica and Britain on her books. She has contributed articles to many books and magazines, including IRELAND OF THE WELCOMES, HIBERNIA THE IRISH ARTS REVIEW and has contributed to the making of a major television documentary based on her book for RTE, Discovery (Europe) and the Learning Channel.
In collaboration with David Reilly she has written 7 screenplays for cinema, ranging, as she says 'from the historical to the hysterical!', three of which are currently in development. Additional information on these and other screenplays in progress by Anne and David can be had by contacting the email address below.

When not writing, Anne's plays some tennis and golf and loves walks in the country. With her husband Tony, she has a keen interest in National Hunt racing. She is a self-confessed TV sports addict, especially for soccer, rugby and hurling.