Craig A. Smith

Craig Smith lives in Musselburgh. He’s been many things in his time, but by far the most challenging was washing dishes in a Mexican restaurant (all that baked-on cheese is a nightmare to clean). Nowadays, when not making a living designing websites, he occasionally dusts off his bass guitar and joins one of his old bands on the nostalgia circuit. This led to him waking up hungover and naked with his bandmates in a Tokyo bathhouse at 7am, so it’s not all pipes and slippers (although it was very hard getting out of that bath). He is the proud recipient of two NME singles of the week and four Ks in Kerrang, which he is tempted to get tattooed on his arm but is scared he’d chicken out after three. Craig’s debut novel, The Mile, was written feverishly, fuelled by the pressing nature of the independence debate. Despite this, it was critically acclaimed. His new book, The River, is longer.