Moore was born and grew up in Belfast, Northern Ireland. His father was a pro-Axis surgeon and his mother was a nurse. He grew up in a large Roman Catholic family of nine children, but rejected that faith early in life. Some of his novels feature staunchly anti-doctrinaire and anti-clerical themes, and he in particular spoke strongly about the effect of the Church on life in Ireland. A recurring theme in his novels is the concept of the Catholic priesthood. On several occasions he explores the idea of a priest losing his faith. These works were criticized by his sister, a Roman Catholic nun.

Moore was a volunteer air raid warden during the bombing of Belfast by the Luftwaffe. He also served as a civilian with the British army in North Africa, Italy and France. He went on to work in Eastern Europe after the war ended for the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration. Moore emigrated to Canada in 1948, worked as a reporter for the Montreal Gazette, and eventually became a citizen of Canada. While he eventually made his primary residence in the United States, he continued to live part of each year in Canada up to his death. He also taught creative writing at UCLA.

Moore lived in Canada from 1948 to 1958, and wrote his first novels there. His earliest novels were thrillers, published under his own name and the pseudonyms Bernard Mara and Michael Bryan. Moore's first novel outside the genre, Judith Hearne, remains among his most highly regarded. The book was rejected by ten American publishers before being accepted by a British publisher. It was made into a film, with Dame Maggie Smith playing the lonely spinster who is the book/film's title character. Several other Moore novels were adapted for the screen, including Intent to Kill (1958), The Luck of Ginger Coffey, Catholics, Black Robe, Cold Heaven, and The Statement. He also wrote the screenplay for Alfred Hitchcock's Torn Curtain and The Blood of Others, based on the novel Le Sang des autres by Simone de Beauvoir.

Brian Moore died in 1999 at his home in Malibu, California, aged 77, of pulmonary fibrosis. He had been working on a novel about the 19th-century French symbolist poet Arthur Rimbaud. [1]

Moore has been the subject of two biographies, Brian Moore: The Chameleon Novelist (1998) by Denis Sampson and Brian Moore: A Biography (2002) by Patricia Craig. One of the first critical retrospectives of Moore's entire body of work can be found in Brian Moore and the Meaning of the Past (2007) by Patrick Hicks.

Information about the publishing of Moore's novel, Judith Hearne, and the break-up of his marriage can be found in Diana Athill's memoir, Stet (2000).

Moore's archives, which includes unfilmed screenplays, drafts of various novels, working notes, a 42-volume journal (1957-1998), and his correspondence, are now at The Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas. [2]

Novels

• Wreath for a Redhead (1951) (U.S. title: Sailor's Leave)
• The Executioners (1951)
• French for Murder (1954) (as Bernard Mara)
• A Bullet for My Lady (1955) (as Bernard Mara) [3]
• Judith Hearne (1955) (reprinted as The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne)
• This Gun for Gloria (1957) (as Bernard Mara)
• Intent to Kill (1957) (as Michael Bryan)
• The Feast Of Lupercal (1957) (reprinted as A Moment of Love, Ger 1964: Saturnischer Tanz)
• Murder in Majorca (1957) (as Michael Bryan)
• The Luck of Ginger Coffey (1960)
• An Answer From Limbo (1962)
• The Emperor of Ice-Cream (1965)
• I Am Mary Dunne (1968)
• Fergus (1970)
• The Revolution Script (1971)
• Catholics (1972, Ger 1975: Katholiken)
• The Great Victorian Collection (1975) Ger 1978: Die Große Viktorianische Sammlung)
• The Doctor's Wife (1976)
• The Mangan Inheritance (1979, Ger 1999: Mangans Vermächtnis)
• The Temptation of Eileen Hughes (1981)
• Cold Heaven (1983)
• Black Robe (1985, Ger 1987: Schwarzrock)
• The Colour of Blood Ger 1989: Die Farbe des Blutes
• Lies of Silence (1990)
• No Other Life (1993)
• The Statement (1995, Ger 1997: Hetzjagd)
• The Magician's Wife (1997)

Non-fiction

• Canada (1963)