Marian Keyes was born in the West of Ireland in 1963. She was brought up in Dublin, and then she spent her twenties in London. She earned her law degree and then travelled to London where she worked first as a waitress before getting a job in an accounts office, where she worked for quite some time. Keyes developed a drinking problem, and after a failed suicide attempt, entered a rehabilitation program. Keyes began writing short stories four months before she stopped drinking, in 1993, and when she left rehab, she sent them to a publisher. included with her stories was a letter saying that she had also begun a novel, which she hadn't. The publisher liked the short stories so much that they… wrote back and asked for the novel, and Keyes wrote the firsr four chapters of her novel Watermelon in a week, and was offered a three book contract. Watermelon was published in 1995. Keyes gave up her job in 1996 to become a full time writer. She has sold nearly 5 million copies of her five books worldwide, and has been compared to Helen Fielding. Her books are published in 35 countries worldwide and have been translated into several different languages, such as Hebrew and Japanese.