Duncan McLean (writer)

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Duncan McLean (born 1964) is a Scottish novelist, playwright, and short story writer.

[edit] Life and works

Duncan McLean was born in Aberdeenshire and has lived in Orkney since 1992. While based in Edinburgh in the 1980s, he started writing songs, stand-up routines, and plays for the Merry Mac Fun Co, a street theatre and comedy act with agitprop tendencies. The Merry Macs won various awards, and were twice nominated for the Perrier Comedy Award.

In 1992, McLean published his first book, a collection of short stories called Bucket of Tongues, and since then has published several more books, including two novels and a collection of plays, entitled Plays:One. Around this time, he also set up and ran the Clocktower Press, a small but influential publishing house, which helped bring a new generation of Scottish writers to wider attention. In 1995 he published the novel Bunker Man and in 1998 his travelogue Lone Star Swing was published, which saw McLean tracing the roots of country music precursor Bob Wills.

In recent years, he has divided his time among writing, music, and selling wine and whisky in his wife's family business in Orkney. In 2006, he won the prestigious trade award, UK Restaurant Wine Supplier of the Year. In spring 2007, he returned to writing as his full-time occupation for the first time since 1997. His most recent work includes an adaptation of Aalst, a Belgian play by Pol Heyvaert.