Allan Guthrie

I took an MA course in creative writing a couple of years back, and I was definitely in the bottom of the class. ”

I try not to think about writers who came before me when I'm writing myself. If I did, given the abundance of literary talent Scotland - and Edinburgh in particular - has bestowed upon the world, I wouldn't be able to get as much as a sentence written. ”

Noir focuses on the criminal mind, not a whodunit: more why they did it and will they get away with it. The abnormal psychology is what fascinates me rather than the puzzle-solving aspect. ”

Music was something I was encouraged to do, which I appeared to be quite good at, but it was never a passion. Writing was always my first love. ”

I managed to fit most of the writing to evenings and weekends, and my wife has been very supportive. ”

There is a dark side to Allan Guthrie, but only at the weekends. ”

Some authors are quite happy - and have the time - to do it all themselves, which is great. ”

I'm really quite normal. My imagination has some serious kinks in it, that's all. ”

Maybe it's the buildings, maybe it's the weather, but you can see it affects us - that Scottish gallows humour; our tendency towards bleakness, to look at things in a negative way. Those definitely come out in my writing. ”