Allan Massie is a Scottish writer who has published nearly 30 books, including 20 novels, among them a sequence of fictional autobiographies or biographies of Ancient Roman political figures: Augustus. Tiberius, Mark Anthony, Caesar, Caligula and Nero’s heirs.  Gore Vidal called him a “master of the long-ago historical novel.”

The first of his critically acclaimed World War II trilogy: A Question of Loyalties, The Sins of the Father, and Shadows of Empire won the Saltire Society prize for the best Scottish Book of the year in 1989.  His 2010 and 2012 novels Death in Bordeaux and Dark Summer in Bordeaux have seen him return to Vichy France as part of another trilogy. 

His non-fiction works range from a study of Byron’s travels to a celebration of Scottish rugby and include The Thistle and the Rose, a series of essays on the often thorny relationship between Scotland and England, in which he takes a Unionist viewpoint. He has been a political columnist for the Scotsman, the Sunday Times and the Daily Telegraph and writes a literary column for the Spectator.

Massie is Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2013 Birthday Honours for services to literature.