Noel O’Hare is a freelance journalist, columnist, blogger and author. Born in Northern Ireland, Noel has lived and worked in New Zealand since the early 1970s. In the 1980s he became a staff writer for the New Zealand Listener, where he wrote many award-winning features on subjects as diverse as reading, tantric sex, diet, mental illness and alternative therapies. He was awarded a 2003–2004 Rosalynn Carter Fellowship for Mental Health Journalism to write articles on mental health, in particular about the effects of migration on mental health. He is the author of Think before you Swallow: The art of staying healthy in a health-obsessed world (2007) and How to Save the World by Recycling Your Sex Toys (2009). Until recently, he worked as a researcher and writer for the Public Service Association.