Patricia Highsmith was born in Fort Worth, Texas, in 1921. Her first novel,Strangers On A Train, was made into a film by Alfred Hitchcock in 1951.The Talented Mr Ripley, published in 1955, was awarded the Edgar Allan Poe Scroll by the Mystery Writers of America and introduced the fascinating anti-hero Tom Ripley, who was to appear in many of her later crime novels. Patricia Highsmith died in Locarno, Switzerland, in February 1995. Her last novel,Small g: A Summer Idyll, was published posthumously just over a month later.

Phyllis Nagy was born in New York City and has lived in London since 1992. Her plays, includingWeldon Rising,Butterfly Kiss,DisappearedandThe Strip, have been produced throughout the world and have received awards including the Writers' Guild of Great Britain Award, a Mobil Prize, a Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, the Eileen Anderson/Central Television Award, two National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships and a McKnight Foundation Fellowship. Phyllis is currently under commission to the Royal Shakespeare Company, Nottingham Playhouse and the Royal Court Theatre, where she was recently writer-in-residence. She has adapted Patricia Highsmith'sThe Talented Mr Ripleyfor the Watford Palace Theatre whileNever Land, opened at the Royal Court Theatre in January 1998, while her version of Chekov'sThe Seagullwas produced at Chichester Festival Theatre in the summer of 2003.