A critical biography of writer William Trevor, written by Dr Dolores MacKenna, principal of Loreto Abbey, Dalkey, Co Dublin, will be published on April 1st.

MacKenna met Trevor, now is in his 70s, in the course of her work; he now lives in Devon. "He is a very reserved man, very polite," says MacKenna, whose wide-ranging research included interviews with 70 people associated with Trevor. More than 40 of Trevor's stories have been produced as TV plays; Pat O'Connor's Ballroom of Romance is a notable film adaptation.

Born in Mitchelstown, Co Cork, Trevor's father came from Co Roscommon and his mother from Co Armagh. The family moved from Youghal to Skibbereen to Tipperary to Enniscorthy to Portlaoise to Galway, following his father's career moves. Thus the young Trevor attended a variety of schools, beginning his studies in Loreto Convent in Youghal - as one of the few Protestants to attend the school.

He went to England in 1954 where he first observed life as an outsider - in the way Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw previously did, says MacKenna. Then, in the mid-1970s, after about 20 years in England, he began to look back across the water to his native Ireland.

"One of his big themes is evil and goodness and how ordinary evil is and how extraordinary goodness is," she says.

MacKenna herself is the second lay principal of Loreto Dalkey, which caters for 530 girls. "It's the most beautiful location for a school in Ireland, there's nothing between us and the waves but a few rocks," she enthuses. Originally from Castledermot, Co Kildare, she graduated from UCD in 1970, returning in the early 1980s to study for an MA and then a PhD.

William Trevor: the writer and his work is published by New Island Books.