Liam McIlvanney

Liam McIlvanney was born in Scotland and studied at the universities of Glasgow and Oxford. His monograph, Burns the Radical, won the Saltire First Book Award. He is the author of five crime novels.

His second novel, Where the Dead Men Go, won the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best NZ Crime Book in 2014.

His third novel, The Quaker, won the Bloody Scotland McIlvanney Prize in 2018 and was shortlisted for the Theakston Crime Novel of the Year.

His most recent novel, The Good Father, was published in July 2025 and has been optioned for television by Synchronicity Films. His reviews have appeared in the TLS, LRB, Irish Times, Guardian, Scotsman and NZ Listener.

He is Stuart Professor of Scottish Studies at the University of Otago. He lives in Dunedin with his wife and four sons.