Grabbing readers by the imagination is a writer's job.

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.

The sky was a sparkling succession of black diamonds on black velvet made crystal clear by the blackout.

The law don't like jazz clubs. No one wants anything to do with that kind of trouble.

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.

Writing about the 1950s has given me tremendous respect for my mother's generation.

For a novelist, the gaps in a story are as intriguing as material that still exists.