James Meek was born in London in 1962 and grew up in Dundee. He has published two novels, Mcfarlane Boils The Sea and Drivetime, and two collections of short stories, Last Orders and, most recently, The Museum Of Doubt. He contributed to the acclaimed Rebel Inc anthologies The Children Of Albion Rovers and The Rovers Return.

He has worked as a newspaper reporter since 1985. He lived in the former Soviet Union from 1991 to 1999. He now lives in London, where he writes for the Guardian, and contributes to the London Review of Books and Granta. In 2004 his reporting from Iraq and about Guantanamo Bay won a number of British and international awards.