Growing up in Glasgow, grandma reading stories aloud, total immersion in Dostoyevsky's 'Crime & Punishment' as a young teen, from science to writing, "You have to try a thing to see how it works", London, Leeds and Poland where Crumey began a story imagining a post-Communist Britain. First three novels with Dedalus, moving to Picador, returning to Dedalus. The book most personal to Crumey is 'Sputnik Caledonia', the book which has done best is 'Mobius Dick'. Moving to Newcastle was the end of the road for physics. From being a freelance book reviewer to working as literary editor of Scotland on Sunday. The writing life. Favourite authors. "Art is the expression of value and science is the explanation of phenomena ... I'm interested in the borderline of the explanatory and the expressive." Andrew Crumey now teaches creative writing at Northumbria University. Titles discussed: 'Pfitz', 'Mr Mee', 'Mobius Dick', 'Music as a Foreign Language', 'Sputnik Caledonia' – all are available from www.dedalusbooks.com Presented by Georgia de Chamberet | Produced by Ben Fiagbe rec, 11.09.2018 | 36.50 minutes Andrew Crumey’s book 'The Great Chain of Unbeing' features on this year’s Saltire Literary Awards Fiction Book of the Year shortlist (he won the Saltire First Book Award in 1994) alongside 'The Sealwoman’s Gift' by Sally Magnusso, 'Dead Men’s Trousers' by Irvine Welsh and 'Elsewhere, Home' by Leila Aboulela. They are up against Manda Scott for 'A Treachery of Spies' and Helen Sedgwick for 'The Growing Season'. The winner will be announced on Friday 30 November.

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