Fiery Scots Podcast

Alan Bissett is the Glenfiddich Spirit of Scotland Writer of the Year 2011. He was born in 1975 in Falkirk, Scotland. David Bowie’s ‘Space Oddity’, re-released, was at Number One in the charts that week. He grew up in Hallglen, a housing scheme on the outskirts of the town and the setting for much of his later work, attending Hallglen Primary School, Falkirk High School, and then Stirling University, where he studied English. After graduating he worked very briefly as an English teacher, before deciding to study for a PhD, supporting himself by selling books in Waterstones. He didn’t get the PhD, but he did publish his debut novel.