Ciarán Fahey works for an international news agency that pays him to go and watch football games. Since moving to Berlin from Ireland over a decade ago he has spent his spare time poking his nose into places most law-abiding Germans wouldn't, and become fascinated by the wealth of ruins and abandoned places in and around the German capital. He publishes his reports and photographs on the website www.abandonedberlin.com. It has been praised by the British newspaper The Guardian as one of the "best city blogs around the world" - the only one in Germany. You can find him on Twitter at @IrishBerliner and @AbandonedBerlin. His dark humor, which has undoubtedly made its way into this book, is like him forged by Ireland, an island on the edge of the Atlantic battered by howling winds and persistent rain.