Allan Massie, one of Scotland's foremost literary figures, was born in Singapore in 1938, grew up in Aberdeenshire and read history at Cambridge. He has published 23 works of fiction and nine of non-fiction, which include a string of highly successful historical novels. Perhaps his most masterly works are those set in contemporary society, which confront a wide range of difficult moral problems: The Death of Men, A Question of Loyalties (winner of the 1989 Saltire Society Book of the Year Award), Shadows of Empire, Surviving and, of course, The Sins of the Father. He is also one of Scotland's most respected political commentators and a prolific journalist whose book reviews always reflect his deep understanding of the art of writing.
