Who will you see at The London Gathering?

Alan Bissett is the author of two novels, 'Boyracers' (2001) and 'The Incredible Adam Spark' (2005). He is currently working on his third. He also edited the collection 'Damageland: New Scottish Gothic Fiction' (2001).

He is a former lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Leeds and now tutors at the University of Glasgow. He was short- or longlisted for the Macallan/Scotland on Sunday Short-Story Competition four years running.

In 2007 he featured alongside Malcolm Middleton from Arab Strap on the 'Ballads of The Book' CD, a collobaration between Scottish writers and musicians organised by Idlewild's Roddy Woomble. This inspired him to tour under the name 'Super Puny Humans' with the Glasgow indie bands 'Zoey Van Goey'and 'Y'all is Fantasy Island'. He writes the occasional academic criticism and blog for The Guardian newspaper.

We are honoured to have Wodehouse Prize winner Christopher Brookmyre at The London Gathering and are sure that his session will be greatly attended. The  eleventh Christopher Brookmyre novel, 'Attack of the Unsinkable Rubber Ducks' will be published in August.

His tenth novel, 'All Fun and Games Until Someone Loses an Eye' has been shortlisted for the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award.

Isla Dewar has written ten novels, umpteen short stories for various compilations including ‘Magic’, the charity book produced by Sarah Brown and J.K. Rowling. She has also written a children's book and a couple of short books for reluctant readers.

Her first novel, ‘Keeping up with Magda’ was long listed for the Orange Prize and ‘Dancing in a Distant Place’ was short listed for the Romantic Novel of the year. Her second book was made into a film by Elton John's company Rocket Pictures and starred Helena Bonham Carter, Gina McKee and James Nesbit. Isla wrote the script. Her work has been translated into seventeen languages. ‘The Consequences of Marriage’ was published in paperback in June.

Lesley Glaister teaches a Masters Degree in Writing at Sheffield Hallam University. She is the author of many novels, including 'Honour Thy Father', which won the Somerset Maugham Award and a Betty Trask Award, and more recently 'Easy Peasy', 'Sheer Blue Bliss' and 'Now You See Me' and 'As Far as You Can Go'.

Lesley's latest engrossing, utterly page-turning novel 'Nina Todd Has Gone' was published by Bloomsbury in May 2007.

Andrew Greig is a man of many genres; Fiction, Non-fiction, Poetry and Travel, and has a keen interest in mountaineering.

His first novel, Electric Brae: A Modern Romance (1992), was shortlisted for the McVitie's Prize for Scottish Writer of the Year. His next novel, The Return of John McNab (1996) was shortlisted for the Romantic Novelists' Association Award and is being filmed for the BBC. His fifth novel, In Another Light (2004), won the 2004 Saltire Society Scottish Book of the Year Award.

Andrew Greig lives in Orkney and South Queensferry. His latest books are a selection of his poetry from 1970-2006 - This Life, This Life (2006); and Preferred Lies (2006), a memoir.

Writer Jane Harris was born in Belfast and brought up in Glasgow. Her short stories have appeared in a wide variety of anthologies and she has also written several award-winning short films. In 2000 she received a Writer’s Award from the Arts Council of England.

Harris’s 2006 novel The Observation was shortlisted for two British Book Awards in 2007 including the Waterstone’s Newcomer of the Year and the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction.

A.L. Kennedy lives in Glasgow. She is author of four collections of short fiction and five novels, along with two books of non-fiction many of which have won awards. Her fifth novel "Day" was published in the spring of 2007. She produces a variety of journalism and writes for the stage, radio, film and TV. She also performs stand-up comedy. In 1993 and 2003 she was listed among Grant's Best of Young British Novelists. She is both a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Scotland’s foremost Whisky writer; he has published eight books to date, including the standard work on whisky brands, Scotch Whisky and the leading book on its subject, Malt Whisky, both of which were short-listed for Glenfiddich Awards.  Charles is the  Founding editor of Whisky Magazine and Contributing Editor of the Scotch Malt Whisky Society's Newsletter , where he also chairs the Nosing Panel and writes the tasting notes. He acts as a consultant to the whisky industry on a variety of matters, and over the past 20 years has written promotional materials for all the leading companies and brands. He is also Whisky Consultant to Bonhams Auctioneers.

He was elected a Keeper of the Quaich, the industry's highest accolade, in 1992 for 'his services to Scotch over many years'.

David Mair is the first ever global ambassador for The Balvenie Distillery in Dufftown. David, who has his own pilot's licence,travels the world extolling the virtues of The Balvenie single malt brand, which is in the top 10 worldwide single malt market. Giving tutored nosings and tastings for distributors, wholesalers and customers at whisky fairs and other special events; David surely has one of the most enviable jobs in the world!
"The Balvenie is one of the most traditionally made single malts in Scotland, still growing its own barley, malting on a traditional floor and retaining its own team of craftsmen including coopers and a coppersmith. It is a very distinctive single malt with a delicious honeyed taste that runs throughout all of the different Balvenie whiskies we make."

Whiskies from The Balvenie range of single malts recently received five gold medals at the International Wine and Spirit competition. As Dave says, "It is a very special distillery that makes a very special whisky”.