James Meek was born in London in 1962 and grew up in Dundee. He is the author of six novels including The People’s Act of Love, which was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and won both the Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize and the Scottish Arts Council Award. It has been published in more than thirty countries. Meek’s novel The Heart Broke In was shortlisted for the Costa Book Award and he has also written two collections of short stories and two books of non-fiction: Private Island, which won the 2015 Orwell Prize, and Dreams of Leaving and Remaining. He is a Contributing Editor to the London Review of Books and contributes regularly to the Guardian and the New York Times. He lives in London.