Paul Howard is a multi award-winning journalist, author and comedy writer. He is best known as the creator of the cult character, Ross O'Carroll-Kelly a fictional rugby jock whose exploits have been the subject of fourteen novels that have sold one million copies in Ireland. He was named National Newspapers of Ireland Columnist of the Year in 2013 for his weekly column in The Irish Times on Saturday written under the Ross O'Carroll-Kelly pseudonym. The column began in the sports pages of The Sunday Tribune in January 1998. The inspiration for the columns first came from a nonfiction article Howard was researching on Leinster schools rugby. The information he had gathered on the social activities engaged in by the young rugby players was unprintable for legal reasons; instead, Howard decided to use the material to inspire a set of characters attending the fictional school of "Castlerock". He is the author of three plays ? The Last Days of the Celtic Tiger in 2007 and Between Foxrock and a Hard Place in 2010 and Breaking Dad in 2014 ? as well as the hugely successful 2012 puppet-based Anglo the Musical. 

London