Paul Corrigan is a New Zealander. He is a grandson of Catholic immigrants from Roscommon, Ireland. They were farmers. Relatives include priests and nuns. His mother's people were English. In his orchard of family trees one features Church of England vicars and deans. Other, perhaps luckier forebears were Yeoman Grooms of the Wine-Cellar to Kings James I, Charles I, Charles II, and James II. Another fruit of that particular tree - Landon of Monnington and Credenhill, County Hereford - was the 19th century English poet and novelist Letitia Elizabeth Landon, better known by her initials L. E. L. She died in Accra, in what is now Ghana, in 1838. She was 36. Maria Goretti and Me is Paul's debut published novel. Paul has been a journalist and full-time solo parent of his two daughters and son. He lives in Petone, a suburb of Lower Hutt, Wellington region.