Allan Massie

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Biography

Allan Massie was born on 19 October 1938 in Singapore, and was educated at Trinity College, Glenalmond and Trinity College, Cambridge. He began his career as a teacher (1960-71) at Drumtochty Castle School, and also taught English as a second language in Rome (1972-5). He was Creative Writing Fellow at Edinburgh University (1982-4) and at Glasgow and Strathclyde Universities (1985-6). He was a member of the Scottish Arts Council (1989-91), a Trustee of the National Museums of Scotland (1995-8), and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Allan Massie was a columnist for the Glasgow Herald (1985-8) and the Sunday Times Scotland (1987-91), and has been fiction reviewer for The Scotsman since 1976. He has been a columnist for the Daily Telegraph since 1991, The Daily Mail since 1994, and the Sunday Times Scotland since 1996. A former editor of the New Edinburgh Review, he also contributes to the Sunday Telegraph and The Spectator.

His first novel, Change and Decay in All Around I See was published in 1978, followed by The Last Peacock (1980), which won the Frederick Niven Literary Award, and The Death of Men (1981), winner of a Scottish Arts Council Book Award. His fiction also includes the acclaimed Imperial sequence, a series of historical novels set in the Roman Empire, including Augustus: The Memoirs of the Emperor (1986), Tiberius: The Memoirs of the Emperor (1991) and Caesar (1993). Caligula (2004), a new novel in the sequence, tells the story of the infamous, 'mad' Roman emperor.

Alan Massie is also the author of a trilogy of novels about four brothers set during the Second World War: A Question of Loyalties (1989), The Sins of the Father (1991) and Shadows of Empire (1997).

His latest novel is the third in a further trilogy comprising of The Evening of the World: A Romance of the Dark Ages (2001), set during the fifth century A.D; Arthur the King (2003); and Charlemagne and Roland (2007).

His non-fiction books include works about Muriel Spark, Colette and Byron.

He is married with two sons and one daughter and lives in Selkirk, Scotland.

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Genres (in alphabetical order)

Criticism, Drama, Fiction, Non-fiction

Bibliography

Change and Decay in All Around I See   Bodley Head, 1978

Muriel Spark   Ramsay Head Press, 1979

Ill Met by Moonlight: Five Edinburgh Murders   Harris, 1980

The Last Peacock   Bodley Head, 1980

The Death of Men   Bodley Head, 1981

Edinburgh and the Borders: In Verse   (editor)   Secker & Warburg, 1983

The Caesars   Secker & Warburg, 1983

A Portrait of Scottish Rugby   Polygon, 1984

Eisenstaedt: Aberdeen, Portrait of a City   Louisiana State University Press, 1984

One Night in Winter   Bodley Head, 1984

Augustus: The Memoirs of the Emperor   Bodley Head, 1986

Colette: The Woman, the Writer, and the Myth   (Lives of Modern Women Series)   Penguin, 1986

101 Great Scots   Chambers, 1987

P.E.N. New Fiction: Thirty-Two Short Stories   (editor)   Quartet, 1987

Byron's Travels   Sidgwick & Jackson, 1988

How Should Health Services Be Financed? A Patient's View   Aberdeen University Press, 1988

The Novelist's View of the Market Economy   David Hume Institute, 1988

A Question of Loyalties   Hutchinson, 1989

Glasgow   Barrie and Jenkins, 1989

The Hanging Tree   Heinemann, 1990

The Novel Today: A Critical Guide to the British Novel, 1970-1989   Longman (in association with the British Council), 1990

Scotland and Free Enterprise   (with Ewan Marwick and Douglas C. Mason)   Aims of Industry, 1991

The Sins of the Father   Hutchinson, 1991

Tiberius: The Memoirs of the Emperor   Hodder & Stoughton, 1991

Caesar   Hodder & Stoughton, 1993

These Enchanted Woods   Hutchinson, 1993

Edinburgh   Sinclair-Stevenson, 1994

The History of Selkirk Merchant Company: 1694-1994   Selkirk Merchant Company, 1994

The Ragged Lion   Hutchinson, 1994

King David   Sceptre, 1995

Antony   Sceptre, 1997

Shadows of Empire   Sinclair-Stevenson, 1997

Nero's Heirs   Sceptre, 1999

The Evening of the World: A Romance of the Dark Ages   Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2001

Arthur the King   Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2003

Caligula   Sceptre, 2004

The Thistle and the Rose: Six Centuries of Love and Hate Between Scots and English   John Murray, 2005

Scottish Cultural Identity   Viking, 2006

Charlemagne and Roland   Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 2007

Read about books by Allan Massie at encompassculture.com - the British Council's book database and global online book club

Buy books by Allan Massie at Amazon.co.uk

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Prizes and awards

1980   Frederick Niven Literary Award   The Last Peacock

1982   Scottish Arts Council Book Award   The Death of Men

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Contact information

Publisher (General enquiries) Weidenfeld & Nicolson Orion House 5 Upper St Martin's Lane London  WC2H 9EA England Tel: +44 (0)20 7240 3444 Fax: +44 (0)20 7379 6158 www.orionbooks.co.uk

Agent Curtis Brown Group Ltd Haymarket House 28-29 Haymarket London  SW1Y 4SP England Tel: +44 (0)20 7393 4400 Fax: +44 (0)20 7393 4401 E-mail: info@curtisbrown.co.uk http://www.curtisbrown.co.uk

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