Andrew Murray Scott

Born in Aberdeen, Andrew Murray Scott is the author of many books of non-fiction and four novels: the prizewinning Tumulus, Estuary Blue, The Mushroom Club and, his latest, The Big J. From 1974 to 1987 he worked in scores of mainly menial jobs throughout the UK to sustain his writing, including five years working in an acute psychiatric unit in central London, and during this period built up an extensive record of publication in magazines, anthologies and newspapers. Between 1978 and 1982 he edited the literary magazine Logos. After 1987 he worked as a freelance journalist and nonfiction writer. From 1998 he was media lecturer at Dundee College and evening class tutor in Creative Writing. Since 2007, he has been a fulltime press officer, working for three SNP politicians in Dundee.

His nonfiction includes Alexander Trocchi: The Making of the Monster, an influential biography of the postwar avant-garde writer, and he also edited a collection of Trocchi’s unpublished writings. His books on the life and times of Dundee include a popular and much-reprinted concise historical guide, a biography of 17th century Jacobite leader ‘Bonnie Dundee’ (whose letters he has collected and edited for the Scottish History Society), a post-war social history, and Dundee’s Literary Lives, a two-volume cultural history of the city, as well as a quirky ‘wee book’ of Dundee.

Andrew’s most recent venture has been the publication of a slim volume of poetry, Dancing Underwater, which appeared in September 2009.

But Andrew’s main interest is contemporary literary fiction particularly with some Scottish connection. He is a writer who likes to experiment with ways of telling stories. ‘Unless I can convince myself that each new novel is better than the last, then I won’t be able to finish it,’ he says.

His website is at www.andrewmurrayscott.com