Alice Thompson was born and brought up in Edinburgh. She was the former keyboard player with post-punk eighties band, The Woodentops and joint winner with Graham Swift of The James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction for her first novel, Justine. Her second novel, Pandora’s Box, was shortlisted for The Stakis Prize for Scottish Writer of the Year. Her other novels are Pharos, The Falconer and most recently Burnt Island. Alice is a past winner of a Creative Scotland Award. She is now lecturer in Creative Writing at Edinburgh University.

Praise for Alice Thompson

‘Angela Carter crossed with the Scottish diffidence of Muriel Spark.’ —Ali Smith on Justine

‘A high-wire act of a novel. Try to resist it and you can’t.’ —Fay Weldon on Pandora’s Box

‘Expertly combining compelling storytelling with a cleverly constructed, elegant and metaphor-ridden style.’ —Camilla Pia on The Falconer

‘Haunting, strange, Kafkaesque, poetic mystery.’ —Ian Rankin on The Existential Detective

‘A gothic music video of a novel that whirls with weirdness... madly energetic ... genuinely scary.’ —Stephen King on Pharos

‘This is a simple yet clever tale, gently satirising literary ambition as it explores the darker sources of inspiration, and told with all the supernatural horror of the best Hammer stories.’ —Lesley McDowell on Burnt Island

‘Thompson’s gripping narrative invites the reader to solve the mystery of Burnt Island and the true purpose of Max Long’s fellowship. A dark, compelling novel with strong themes of paranoia and strange eroticism throughout.’ —Lizzie Greenhalgh