Parsons, Julie

Writer of detective stories Julie Parsons was born and grew up in New Zealand, to which her Irish parents had emigrated in 1947. They had both been in the armed services during the Second World War, her father Andy in the army and her mother Elisabeth in the navy. When their daughter was five years old, the father – who was a doctor – disappeared on a sailing boat off the coast of Samoa; the boat was discovered, but none of the crew has ever been found. After seven years, he was legally declared dead, and Julie returned to Ireland with her mother and her three siblings. She attended the Protestant Hall School in Monkstown, Dublin, and as an adult went on to study Social Sciences, Sociology and Music at the Catholic University College in Dublin.