威廉•特雷弗，愛爾蘭當代文學大師，被《紐約客》稱為“當代英語世界最偉大的短篇小說傢”。他於1928年生於愛爾蘭科剋郡米切爾斯敦一個中産階級新教傢庭，在外省度過瞭童年時代，後到都柏林大學聖三一學院曆史係求學。他先後做過雕塑傢、教師、廣告公司文案。從1954年起，他和妻子移居英國。

自1958年齣版第一部長篇小說《行為標準》以來，威廉•特雷弗已創作近二十部中長篇小說、數百部短篇小說，還著有多部戲劇劇本、童書及散文集。他先後三次獲得英國惠特布雷德圖書奬，五次入圍布剋奬。2002年，英國女王伊麗莎白二世授予他騎士爵位。2008年，他獲得愛爾蘭圖書奬終身成就奬。

'You're beautiful,' Johnny told her and so, full of hope, seventeen-year-old Felicia crosses the Irish Sea to England to find her lover and tell him she is pregnant. Desperately searching for Johnny in the bleak post-industrial Midlands, she is, instead, found by Mr Hilditch, a strange and lonely man, a collector and befriender of homeless young girls...William Trevor's tightly woven psychological thriller won the 1994 Whitbread Book of the Year Award and the Sunday Express Book of the Year Award. Susan Hill described it as, 'A masterpiece. You read and are dazzled. It has one of the most memorable and convincing, most sinister and terrifying of characters created in the modern novel.'