Patrick Boyle Biography

Northern Irish short-story writer and novelist, born in Co. Antrim, educated at Coleraine Academical Institution. He worked with Ulster Bank for 45 years and retired as manager of their Wexford branch. Boyle began writing late in life and achieved recognition by winning The Irish Times Short Story Competition in 1965. He confirmed his reputation with a collection of stories, At Night All Cats Are Grey (1966), and a novel, Like Any Other Man (1966), which satirizes the stagnant life of a country town through its portrayal of a drunken, philandering, and ultimately doomed, bank manager. Boyle's short stories are more sympathetic and it is in this genre that his talent is most evident. His three collections, At Night All Cats Are Grey, All Looks Yellow to the Jaundiced Eye (1969), and A View from Calvary (1976), contain stories which rank with those of Frank O'Connor and Sean O'Faolain.