BEFORE she wrote Blood Orange and The Lies You Told, Harriet Tyce worked as a criminal barrister in London. Here are five more Scottish authors who did other jobs prior to embarking upon their literary careers.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Sherlock Holmes creator worked as a surgeon on a whaling boat and as a medical officer on a steamer travelling between Liverpool and West Africa. He then settled in Portsmouth and divided his time between medicine and writing.
Robert Louis Stevenson
The author of Kidnapped, Treasure Island and the Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde had no desire to join the Stevenson family profession of lighthouse engineering. As a compromise to his father, he agreed to study law and qualified for the Scottish bar in 1875, but never practised.
READ MORE: Blood Orange author Harriet Tyce on her Edinburgh roots and why she swapped law for books
Denise Mina
When she left school at 16, Mina worked in kitchens, a meat-processing factory and as an auxiliary nurse for geriatric and terminal care patients, before returning to education and gaining a law degree. Among her most recent novels are The Long Drop, Conviction and The Less Dead.
Doug Johnstone
Johnstone – whose books include Fault Lines, The Jump and A Dark Matter – has a degree in physics and a PhD in nuclear physics. He worked as an engineer using mathematical modelling to help design radar and missile guidance systems for aircraft.
READ MORE: Blood Orange author Harriet Tyce on her Edinburgh roots and why she swapped law for books
Louise Welsh
After graduating from university, Welsh opened her own second-hand bookshop just off Byres Road in Glasgow. She did it to be closer to books. These days Welsh is surrounded by shelves of her own titles, including The Cutting Room, Tamburlaine Must Die and the Plague Times Trilogy.
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