This bio is chopped out of a press release. I'll do something more personal, and more suited to Red Lemonade, later. (Only joined today, still exploring.) "Julian Gough was born in London to Tipperary parents, and raised in Ireland. While studying philosophy at university in Galway, he began singing with the underground, and very literary, rock band Toasted Heretic. They played London, Paris and New York, released four albums, and had a top ten hit in Ireland in 1991 with Galway and Los Angeles, a song about not kissing Sinead O’Connor. His first novel, Juno & Juliet, was published in the UK and US in 2001. His short story The Orphan and the Mob won the BBC National Short Story Award (the biggest prize in the world for a single story), in 2007. His second novel, Jude: Level 1, was shortlisted for the 2008 Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Award, alongside work by Alan Bennett, Garrison Keillor and Will Self. (The Sunday Tribune described it as “possibly the finest comic novel since Flann O’Brien’s The Third Policeman”. ) His story The Great Hargeisa Goat Bubble was the first short story ever published by the FT. It was subsequently adapted into a radio play by the BBC and broadcast twice on Radio 4. In early 2010, the Sunday Tribune chose Jude: Level 1 as their Irish Novel of the Decade. His collected poems and lyrics, Free Sex Chocolate, were published by Salmon in 2010. He represented Ireland in the Dalkey Archive’ anthology, Best European Fiction 2010, and his third novel, Jude in London, will be published by Old Street in September 2011. Julian is probably best known for stealing Will Self’s pig. He now lives in Berlin, from which base he blogs, twitters, and steals pigs. His third novel, Jude in London, will be published in September."