The Golden Menagerie

Allan Cameron writes beautifully, sometimes with easy economy, at other times with a startling sharp pinprick of humour. This novel is, however, so pungently itself, with an unmistakable and singular voice, that it will appeal across a spectrum of taste. Like Yann Martel's Life of Pi, its originality might well mark it out from the pack, and Cameron might well be scratching his head to produce a follow-up. - ALISTAIR MOFFAT, writer, broadcaster and former director of the Edinburgh Fringe '...involving, gunny and stimulating, with a central character who manages to be both flawed and likeable. The story carries its classical roots lightly, with its characters, events and issues striking the reader as utterly - sometimes painfully - relevant to life today.' - MIKE ALEXANDER, film director

Allan Cameron was born in 1952 and brought up in Nigeria and East Pakistan. He left school at 16 and started his education firstly working at sea then in Italy. He has been variously a postman, labourer, factory worker, hydrographic surveyor and university lecturer. For the last ten years he has lived on the Isle of Lewis as a writer and translator. He has translated seventeen books, published articles in the Italian press and contributed commentaries to Alasdair Gray?s Book of Prefaces. His unpublished work includes plays, short stories and poetry in Italian and English and he is currently working on his second novel.