Without archives many stories of real people would be lost, and along with those stories, vital clues that allow us to reflect and interpret our lives today.

For me, writing stories set, well, wherever they're best set, is a form of cultural curiosity that is uniquely Scottish - we're famous for travelling in search of adventure.

People make interesting assumptions about the profession. The writer is a mysterious figure, wandering lonely as a cloud, fired by inspiration, or perhaps a cocktail or two.

Books exist for me not as physical entities with pages and binding, but in the province of my mind.

Scotland just isn't terribly Tory.

Sometimes I create a character from a scrap - a mere mention that has been left behind.

Copywriters, journalists, mainstream authors, ghostwriters, bloggers and advertising creatives have as much right to think of themselves as good writers as academics, poets, or literary novelists.