About

I am a writer living in Edinburgh, Scotland. I like to write about what I call the ‘murderous’ side of family life – the dark, the quirky and the strange.

My debut novel, The Other Mrs Walker (Mantle/Picador) about a woman who finds families for dead people is a Times Bestseller and Waterstones Scottish Book of the Year 2017.

I have been Highly Commended as a Rising Star in the DIVA Literary Awards and shortlisted as a Breakthrough Author in the Books Are My Bag Readers Awards 2017. In 2016 I was named an Amazon Rising Star.

My short stories and non-fiction have been published in a variety of anthologies and magazines including the Guardian Weekend Magazine, New Writing Scotland, Gutter and The Herald. 

I am a Hawthornden and a Brownsbank Fellow and I have an MLitt in Creative Writing from the University of Glasgow. I was awarded Glasgow University’s inaugural Curtis Brown Prize for Fiction in 2009, the Maverick Award from the Tom McGrath Trust in 2011 and the Literature Works First Page Prize in 2013. 

I am represented by Clare Alexander of Aitken Alexander Associates.