Mial Pagan

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Michael Gerard Pagan was born 28 May 1956 in Belfast.

He graduated from St. MacNissi's College, Garron Tower in 1974. He then moved to England and studied for a degree in drama, English Literature, and French at Manchester University, graduating in 1980. In 1997, he studied for a Master of Business Administration in management and technology at the Open University.

After graduating from university in 1980, he moved to London where he appeared in a number of productions, including in Eugène Ionesco's Rhinoceros' at the Croydon Warehouse Theatre. He was a member of the Company of Ten theatrical group and appeared with them in Translations by Brian Friel, A Streetcar Named Desire, and God Only Knows by Hugh Whitemore. He worked as a drama therapist in hospitals and day centres around London.{{Citation needed|date=December 2023}}

Pagan later began writing plays. He wrote the screenplay for the film Paradise Place (2013), a comedy about a soldier returning from duty in Afghanistan who finds that the street where he lived no longer exists.{{Cite web |last=Moorhead |first=Rosy |date=6 February 2013 |title=St Albans writer Mial Pagan needs your help to make his movie, Paradise Place |url=https://www.stalbansreview.co.uk/news/10209099.st-albans-writer-mial-pagan-needs-your-help-to-make-his-movie-paradise-place/ |access-date=23 December 2023 |website=St Albans & Harpenden Review}}{{Cite news |date=September 2013 |title=Paradise found as St Albans film gets green light |work=St Albans & Harpenden Review}} His play The Old Fighting Cocks was recorded by The Company of Ten in association with Radio Verulam in 2018. It tells the story of local soldiers joining up to fight in the First World War.{{Cite web |last=Pagan |first=Mial |date=14 April 2018 |title=The Old Fighting Cocks |url=https://www.abbeytheatre.org.uk/podcast/the-old-fighting-cocks/ |access-date=22 December 2023 |website=Abbey Theatre}}

Pagan's plays have been produced at the Abbey Theatre, St Albans: Other People's Lives (2010),{{Cite web |date=2010 |title=Festival of New Playwriting |url=http://www.abbeytheatre2.org.uk/2010-11/recent_productions.php |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110903031829/http://www.abbeytheatre2.org.uk/2010-11/recent_productions.php |archive-date=3 September 2011 |website=Abbey Theatre}} Dancehall Sweethearts (2017),{{Cite web |last=Lacey-Davidson |first=Mattie |date=20 July 2017 |title=New play Dancehall Sweethearts by Mial Pagan inspired by memories of The Troubles in Northern Ireland at The Abbey Theatre in Holywell Hill in St Albans |url=https://www.stalbansreview.co.uk/news/15424759.new-play-dancehall-sweethearts-by-mial-pagan-inspired-by-memories-of-the-troubles-in-northern-ireland-at-the-abbey-theatre-in-holywell-hill-in-st-albans/ |website=St Albans & Harpenden Review}} and National Trust (2021).{{Cite web |date=2021 |title=National Trust |url=https://www.abbeytheatre.org.uk/whats-on/national-trust/ |access-date=22 December 2023 |website=Abbey Theatre}} His play "Thin Places" was performed as part of the Camden Fringe festival in 2024; set in a village in Northern Ireland, the play explores the return of an exile to his home.{{Cite news |date=13 August 2024 |title=10 from 50: Mial Pagan |url=https://stalbanstimes.co.uk/qa/10-from-50-mial-pagan/ |access-date=23 August 2024 |work=St Albans Times}}{{Cite web |last=Birch |first=Sarah |date=24 August 2024 |title=Thin Places, Little Angel Theatre – review |url=https://www.islingtoncitizen.co.uk/2024/08/24/thin-places-little-angel-theatre-review/ |access-date=26 August 2024 |website=Islington Citizen}}

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In 1988, Pagan started working in information technology (IT) for KPOS Computer Systems in Brentford. From 1990, he worked in IT management for various companies: over three years at Zenith Media and over five years at Carat UK. He worked for advertising agencies writing articles for business magazines. In 2002, he set up The Pagan Consultancy. He wrote business books in the Teach Yourself series for Hodder Education.

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Pagan's novel The Agency, formerly called Eat More Bloody Meat Y'Bastards!, is a satire based on his experience of office life in the advertising industry.

Using the pen name Michael McDonnell, Pagan wrote the Dermot O'Hara Mysteries, detective stories set in Kenmare, County Kerry.

Since 2008 he has worked as a freelance writer at the publisher Hodder and Stoughton.

In 1987, Pagan married English author and human rights activist Siobhan Dowd (1960–2007) in Lambeth;{{Cite news |last=Fryer |first=Jonathan |date=24 August 2007 |title=Obituary Siobhan Dowd |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2007/aug/24/guardianobituaries.humanrights |access-date=21 December 2023}} they separated in the early 1990s. In 1996, he married Alison McNaught (born 1961, Wirral) at Aylesbury Vale. He has lived in St Albans, Hertfordshire since 1997.{{citation needed|date=December 2023}}

• Manage Your IT for Profit (Teach Yourself) (2010)
• Other People's Lives (2012)
• Eat More Bloody Meat Y'Bastards! (2014) later renamed The Agency
• Short Cuts: Three short stories (2015)
• The Old Fighting Cocks (2016)
• Dancehall Sweethearts (2018)
• National Trust (2022)

The Dermot O'Hara Mysteries

• Thicker Than Water (2012)
• Banshee (2013)
• The Loneliest Man In The World (2016)

{{reflist}}

• [https://www.mialpagan.com/ Mial Pagan Home Page]
• [https://www.facebook.com/mial.pagan Mial Pagan on Facebook]
• {{IMDb name|id=nm5923778}}

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Category:Living people

Category:1956 births

Category:Writers from Belfast

Category:Alumni of the Victoria University of Manchester

Category:21st-century British novelists

Category:Male dramatists and playwrights from Northern Ireland