Diary 
M.J. Hyland
I often use the past tense when I talk about my father, which is strange, since he’s still alive, still an alcoholic, still a gambler and still, technically speaking, a criminal. At the end of 2002, he was released from a Brisbane prison after serving 20 months of a four-year sentence for armed robbery, which makes him sound dangerous and exciting. Far from it. He’s five foot nothing, wears thick spectacles, speaks slowly with a broad Dublin accent and is polite to strangers.
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From the LRB letters page: [ 3 June 2004 ] Eoin Dillon.
M.J. Hyland used to be a lawyer. Her first novel, How the Light Gets In, will be published by Canongate later this month. She lives in Melbourne.
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