Born in 1904, Graham Greene was the son of a headmaster and the fourth of six children. Preferring to stay home and read rather than endure the teasing at school that was a by-product of his father's occupation, Greene attempted suicide several times and eventually dropped out of school at the age of 15. His parents sent him to an analyst in London who recommended he try writing as therapy. He completed his first novel by the time he graduated from college in 1925. Greene wrote both entertainments and serious novels. Catholicism was a recurring theme in his work, notable examples being The Power and the Glory (1940) and The End of the Affair (1951). Popular suspense novels include: The… Heart of the Matter, Our Man in Havana and The Quiet American. Greene was also a world traveler and he used his experiences as the basis for many books. One popular example, Journey Without Maps (1936), was based on a trip through the jungles of Liberia. Greene also wrote and adapted screenplays, including that of the 1949 film, The Third Man, which starred Orson Welles. He died in Vevey, Switzerland in 1991.
Originally from Aberdeen, Ian Mitchell has lived in Glasgow for the past thirty years. Winner of the Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature for A View from the Ridge, historian Ian R. Mitchell gave up teaching to write full time. Ian's background in historical research, coupled with indepth personal experience of East Berlin in the 1980s, allows him to create an authentic historical novel. His previous exercise in historical fiction, Mountain Outlaw, was described by the renowned historian E J Hobsbawm as 'fascinating...a fine piece of work...more support for my ideas on social banditry.'Peter Kemp was born in Govan and raised in a grey, post-war Glasgow. With generations of… shipbuilding in his veins, he followed the path that was laid for him, working on the construction of the QE2 as an apprentice patternmaker. He witnessed first hand the death of shipbuilding on the Clyde and the industrial turmoil of the time, yet amidst this world of heavy industry Peter managed to discover a different, more natural, world on his doorstep. The world of Scotland's scenery inspired Peter's lifelong passion for the great outdoors: since 1990 he has been guiding people from all over the world over the hills, sharing the experience of Scotland's scenery with them. After many years balancing the dichotomy of periods of frantic work with unemployment, Peter gave up building luxury yachts and is now living quietly in Glasgow with his wife of 32 years, May, and one of his four sons. Peter still ventures onto Scotland's hills both on his own and as a guide, paints, and dabbles in politics as a trade union official.