Liam McIlvanney was born in Ayrshire.  He is the Stuart Professor of Scottish Studies at the University of Otago, New Zeland.  He won the Saltire First Book Award for Burns the Radical in 2002, and his work has appeared in the Times Literary Supplement and the London review of Books.  He lives in Dunedin with his wife and four sons.  All the Colours of the Town is his first novel.