David Manderson was born in Westerton, a village on the outskirts of Glasgow. His parents came from Motherwell and the rest of his family from other parts of Scotland and Northern Ireland. As a child he was fascinated by history, by atmospheric places like castles and battlefields, and by stories he had read and heard.
At 17 he left home for St Andrews University, where his passion for reading and writing matured into a love of study. He had written short stories and novels since his teenage years, but at St Andrews these efforts began to focus and tighten around specific themes. Many years later they would result in his books Rob Roy and Local Hero – published by the Association of Scottish Literary Studies – and his novel Lost Bodies.
Leaving university with an MA in English Literature and Language, David spent two years as a Project Officer with Y-Ard Ltd, a shipping company, and then joined the Scottish folk band The Tannahill Weavers as their roadie, travelling throughout Europe, Canada and the USA. While he was with them the band appeared at famous New York folk clubs such as The Other End, the internationally known Prairie Home Companion Show hosted by Garrison Keillor, and the Philadelphia Folk Festival. Returning to Scotland 2 years later, he worked as a salesman, a warehouseman and a manager before taking up a post as a teacher in Further Education. During this period he set up and ran the Real to Reel Short Film Festival, which ran successfully at the Glasgow Film Theatre for 9 years.
After writing and teaching many college courses, he decided it was time to turn his dream of being an author into reality. He registered for the famous MLitt in Creative Writing at Glasgow University, alongside others who went on to success such as Louise Welsh, Zoe Strachan, Laura Marney, Rachel Seiffert and Anne Donovan, and graduated in 2000. At this time he also founded and edited the creative writing magazine Nerve, supported by the Scottish Arts Council, which ran for 5 issues. In 2002, he signed up for a PhD at Strathclyde University. His final thesis was a full-length novel with a critical introduction for which he was awarded the doctorate without being asked to make any changes. It was the first complete work of fiction to gain a PhD in Scotland.
During this time he launched the Reading Allowed event, a monthly gig of music and readings staged at the Tchai Ovna Teahouse, the coolest performance venue in Glasgow’s trendy west end. Writers who have read there include Alan Jamieson, Catherine Czerkawka, Graham Fulton, Jim Ferguson, Brian Whittingham, Gerrie Fellows and Sheila Templeton. (A decade later it is still running, and goes from strength to strength.)
In 2007 he left Further Education to join the new University of the West of Scotland as a lecturer in Creative Writing and Screenwriting. Given this wider audience, he was soon appearing at conferences, seminars and symposia to give talks on fiction, history, film and literature, and publishing in journals, anthologies, collections and reputable websites.
At the age of 55, he finally succeeded in having his novel Lost Bodies accepted for publication by a well-known independent publisher. It marked a turning point in his career, moving beyond the world of small magazines and grass roots events. But it still sprang from the same principles of passionate interest, deep research and warm human emotion that had marked all his other projects from the start.
He has gone on to write more fiction and a full-length work of historical non-fiction, for which he is seeking a publisher. His ambition is still to write books that people will actually want to read. He intends to achieve his aim of being a full-time professional writer any day now.
