J.G. Farrell

(1935 - 1979)

Born in Liverpool and raised and buried in Ireland, writer J.G. Farrell once said in an interview, “The really interesting thing that’s happened during my lifetime has been the decline of the British Empire.” He is best known for his Empire trilogy: Troubles, The Siege of Krishnapur, and The Singapore Grip. He contracted polio while studying at Oxford, was forced to recover in an iron lung, and remained weakened for the rest of his life. He drowned at the age of forty-four while fishing on the coast of Bantry Bay.