Andrew Greig was born and brought up in Scotland. He has published many collections of poetry, including Men on Ice (Canongate) and two novels, Electric Brae (Canongate), which was short-listed for the MacVitie’s Prize and received a Scottish Arts Council Award, and The Return of John MacNab (Headline), which topped the Scottish best-seller list in 1996. He took part in a number of Himalayan expeditions and from his experiences wrote Summit Fever (Hutchinson) and Kingdoms of Experience (Hutchinson).