Alistair Findlay

Alistair Findlay was born in Winchburgh, in West Lothian, in 1949. The son of a fourth-generation shale miner, he started out as a part-time footballer (having signed for Hibernian FC in 1965 until 1968) before becoming a writer.

In 1970 he trained as a social worker at Moray House College, Edinburgh, and became a manager within the profession. During the 1980s, Findlay became a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain, citing Labour’s commitment to supporting Margaret Thatcher’s war in the Falkland Islands.

During his lifetime he has also achieved degrees in Social and Cultural History and Literature and Poetry from a number of institutions: Bradford, the OU, Edinburgh, and Stirling. In August 2007, the Scottish Arts Council awarded him a Writer’s Bursary. With this Bursary he edited Lenin’s Gramophone, a critical anthology on the poetry of Scottish Marxism, as well as writing Dancing With Big Eunice, a third collection of poems on social workers.

Findlay has also produced a string of football-related poetry works, including Sex, Death and Football, The Love Songs of John Knox, and editing 100 Favourite Scottish Football Poems (all published by Luath Press).