Padraig Rooney was born in Ireland and lives in the Pyrenées Orientales in France. He was a teacher of English literature in international schools for many decades and is an award-winning poet. The Gilded Chalet: Travels in Literary Switzerland was described in the TLS as “Brilliant. Thoroughly absorbing.” His articles have appeared in The Irish Times, The Guardian, London Review of Books, The Scotsman and The New European. Rebel Angel, his biography of Swiss writer and traveller Annemarie Schwarzenbach, will be published by Polity Books in 2024.