Douglas Stuart

Stuart grew up in Sighthill and Glasgow's East End, the youngest son of a mother who died of alcoholism when he was sixteen; he has said that reading Kelman's How Late It Was, How Late was the first time he saw his own world in a book.

Textile design carried him out: the Royal College of Art, then New York at twenty-four, designing for labels from Calvin Klein to Banana Republic, while for ten years he wrote Shuggie Bain in early mornings and on planes. More than thirty publishers turned it down.

It won the 2020 Booker, only the second Scottish win after Kelman himself. Young Mungo (2022) returned to the tenements with a love story across the sectarian divide.