Nicola Lindsay was born in London in 1944 and was educated at the Perse School for Girls in Cambridge where she was known as Nicky Townley. She trained as a nurse at Guy's Hospital, London before moving to Dublin where she completed a modelling course with the Miriam Woodbyrne Agency.

She lived in West Africa, studying drama with the Festival Players and playing in the Pro Musica chamber orchestra for five years before returning to Ireland. On her return, she studied flute in the Royal Irish Academy of Music with Doris Keogh and later with Andre Prieur.

Moving to County Wicklow in 1975, Nicola Lindsay continued to play the flute with the Dublin Orchestral Players and the Dublin Symphony Orchestra. She also wrote and illustrated her first book for children, which was published several years later.

In 1994 she started to write seriously and, to date has had five novels published by Poolbeg Press (A Place for Unicorns, Diving through Clouds, Eden Fading, Tumbling Jude and Butterfly), two illustrated children's books (Batty Cat and My Magic Place) and a collection of her poetry, Lines of Thought.

Nicola Lindsay records her own work on RTÉ 1 and has read her short stories and monologues and talked about her work in a wide variety of venues, including schools, Trinity College, Dublin, Mount Juliet and also for the Irish Country Women's Association.

Nicola Lindsay returned to serious acting in 2008, playing Ana in The Clean House by Sarah Ruhl in The New Theatre, Temple Bar, Dublin.

She has had numerous articles, scripts, short stories and poems published in magazines, journals and collections in both the UK and Ireland. Her novel, Diving Through Clouds, has been published in the USA and in the Reader's Digest Select Editions in several countries. A Place for Unicorns has also been published in Germany.

Nicola Lindsay has hosted an Arts slot on East Coast Radio and has written and recorded many scripts for the Sunday Miscellany programme on RTE Radio One and has read her work on the Book on One and Lyric FM. She has been interviewed on radio and television on the BBC, RTE 1 and TV3. For several years she has performed her own one woman show in a wide variety of venues.

In 2007 she completed a screenwriting course and is now involved in writing both for the theatre and the screen. Her monologues have been performed by members of the Attic Studio, Dublin and also on the radio and stage. The Dry Rain Theatre Company has also performed her revue, Electric Gas.

In 2008 Nicola Lindsay returned to acting, completing workshops at the Gaiety School of Acting in Dublin and also with directors Vinny Murphy and Graham Cantwell. She has worked in feature and short films and television commercials and is also a voice-over artist (www.piehole.ie).

She is a member of Irish Actors' Equity, the Irish Film and Television Academy and the Irish Writers' Union. She has three adult daughters and lives in County Kildare in Ireland with her husband, Charles Dudley.