Andrew Greig

Andrew Greig was born in Stirling in 1951. He spent his childhood in Bannockburn and his adolescence in the East Fife coastal town of Anstruther. After a year of drifting, salmon netting, hop-picking and writing, he studied Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh, and lived there and in South Queensferry for nearly twenty years. Through the mid-80s he climbed on a series of Himalayan expeditions, and spent time in Canada. Around 1989, he began spending winters in Stromness, Orkney. He married the novelist Lesley Glaister in 2001. They now live in Edinburgh and Orkney.

Andrew’s first novel, Electric Brae (Canongate), was shortlisted for the McVities Scottish Writer of the Year Prize and the Boardman-Tasker Award.

His second novel, The Return of John Macnab (Headline), was shortlisted for the Romantic Novelists Award. His third, That Summer (Faber), has sold over 100,000 copies worldwide and been optioned for film by the actress Emily Watson. In Another Light, set in Penang and Orkney, was published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson in 2004 and was the Saltire Scottish Book of the Year.

His non-fiction book, Preferred Lies (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2006), is about being alive, Scotland, transience, fathers and sons, mediated through the practice of golf.

Romanno Bridge, a wintry thriller that is ‘stand-alone sequel’ to The Return of John McNab, was published by Quercus in Spring 2008.

The widely-praised At Loch of The Green Corrie, which combines meditations on Assynt, Norman MacCaig, personal memoir, Scotland, geology and history and male friendship, with the story of a three day fishing quest, was published in 2010.

Fair Helen, published by Quercus on 22nd August 2013, was shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction 2014.

Together with Mike Heron, he has written You Know What You Could Be: Tuning into the 1960s. Telling the story of The Incredible String band, it was published by Riverrun in April 2017.

Andrew’s most recent book, Rose Nicolson, was published by Quercus on 5th August 2021, and has been longlisted for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction 2022.