DES EKIN is a journalist and the author of four books. Born in County Down, Northern Ireland, he began his career as a reporter at age sixteen and rose to become Deputy Editor of the Belfast Sunday News before moving to his current home in Dublin. He worked as a journalist, columnist, Assistant Editor and finally a Political Correspondent for the Sunday World from 1982 until 2012. He has written two crime novels, Stone Heart and Single Obsession. His true-life history book, The Stolen Village (2006), was shortlisted for the Argosy Irish Nonfiction Book of the Year Award and Book of the Decade in the Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Awards 2010. He is married with a son and two daughters.