Alice Thompson

Author Alice Thompson was born in Edinburgh, and studied English at Oxford University. Her first artistic success came as keyboardist for rock band The Woodentops, but she left the band in 1987 to concentrate on her writing. Her first novella, Killing Time, was published in 1990, and with her first novel Justine she she shared the James Tait Black Memorial Prize with Graham Swift.

While working as a Writer in Residence in Shetland, she was inspired to write Pharos. Her 1998 novel Pandora’s Box won an SAC Creative Writing award, and Thompson’s most recent novel Burnt Island was published in 2013. Alice is currently a lecturer on the MSc in Creative Writing at the University of Edinburgh.