Brian Keaney was born in East London to Irish parents. He was educated first by nuns and then by Jesuit priests. He went to Liverpool University where he studied English. After leaving university he worked as a teacher for nearly ten years before becoming a full-time writer.
He has written twenty novels for young people which were published in the UK by Oxford University Press, Orchard Books, Hodder & Stoughton and Barrington Stoke. They have been translated into a variety of foreign languages. In 2017 he wrote his first novel for adults, The Alphabet of Heart’s Desire which is published by Holland House.
He has also written plays for theatre-in education companies and more than thirty educational books. He has been Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Goldsmiths College, London, the London College Of Fashion and St Mary’s University,Twickenham and for a number of years he taught Creative Writing on the University of Cambridge summer programme.
Brian lives in South East London but also spends part of his time at his family house in Leitrim, Ireland.