War Created Bizarre Allies, While Peace Itself

I Love Short Stories - Reading And Writing Them. The Best Short Stories Distill All The Potency Of A Novel Into A Small But Heady Draught. They Are Perfect Reading Material For The Bus Or Train Or For A Lunchtime Break. Everything Extraneous Has Been Strained Off By The Author. The Best Short Stories Pack The Heft Of Any Novel, Yet Resonate Like Poetry.

I'm Often Asked How I Write Books, But I Don't Think My Approach Is Suitable For Everyone. If I Walked Into A Creative Writing Class, All I Could Say To Them Was 'i Tend To Make It Up As I Go Along.' I'm Not Sure That's Brilliant Advice.

You Wouldn't Think You Could Kill An Ocean, Would You? But We'll Do It One Day. That's How Negligent We Are.

I Started Writing Novels While An Undergraduate Student, In An Attempt To Make Sense Of The City Of Edinburgh, Using A Detective As My Protagonist. Each Book Hopefully Adds Another Piece To The Jigsaw That Is Modern Scotland, Asking Questions About The Nation's Politics, Economy, Psyche And History ... And Perhaps Pointing Towards Its Possible Future.

I'm Interested In Scotland Now And Then, How It's Changed. I Want To Get The Reader To Think About That By Thinking About Something From The Past. How Has Society Changed, How Has Policing Changed, Have We Changed Philosophically, Psychologically, Culturally, Spiritually?