Alistair Moffat Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

Alistair Moffat is an award winning journalist and Scottish writer who is also the Rector of the University of St Andrews, and a former director 0f the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

The author graduated in 1972 from the University of St. Andrews, where he studied Medieval History. While in college, he was known for being quite the sports guy as he engaged in athletics and played basketball, cricket and rugby.

Moffat also engaged in student politics as he campaigned for John Cleese who ran and became one of the most loved rectors.

While at the University of Edinburgh, he was very much involved in student politics and helped Gordon Brown win rector election. Together, the two would agitate for a number of political and social issues in the 1979 by-election in Edinburgh South.

After he graduated from St. Andrews, he proceeded to earn a masters in philosophy from the University of London and another degree from the University of Edinburgh.

Moffat was successful immediately after graduating from college as in 1976 he became the Edinburgh Festival Fringe’s director. He would go on to head the institution for five years, making it into one of the largest festivals across the globe.

He would then leave the organization in 1981 and found a job working with STV. He would soon rise through the ranks and served as programme director, Network Production chief executive and ultimately, the chairman of the entire organization.

During his stint with STV, he was the winner of several awards including a BAFTA and a number of several Royal Television Society gongs. Moffat left STV in 1999 to establish and become a director at the Lennoxlove Book Festival and the Borders Book Festival.

He was also the director of a Scottish national literacy initiative, where he worked with the likes of Margaret Drabble and Sir Robert Winston to improve literacy in the country. He then served at the University of St. Andrews rector between 2011 to 2013.

Even with all his many responsibilities, Alistair Moffat began writing as soon as he resigned from his day job at STV.

During the 1980s and 1970s, he was very active writing non fiction papers on education policy. He recommended greater focus on primary education as he believed this is how Scotland would widen participation in high school and other higher levels of education.

He has since become known for shaping the education policies of the major political parties in the United Kingdom.

Starting in 1999, he wrote mainly in social history making his debut with the 1978 published “The Edinburgh Fringe.” He has since written more than twenty titles including “The Wall,” “The Reivers” and “Tyneside,” all of which have been adapted into TV series.

“The Night Before Morning” by Alistair Moffat is a moving, exciting and beautifully crafted tale set in June 1945. Hitler has just won the war and has occupied Britain, leaving the United States cowering as Germany threatens nuclear attack.

Deep into the night, a flitting figure goes through the ruins of an abbey looking for some document that could change everything. The journal had been written by David Erskine, a young soldier during the war.

When the allies finally manage to drive the Germans from France and are on the cusp of victory, Erskine who was based in Antwerp saw a rapidly changing world. He watched as a huge atomic cloud was detonated by the Nazis in London in a last desperate attempt to keep their holdings.

Erskine soon becomes a prisoner of war in his homeland and becomes determined to escape and join the resistance even as the occupying forces tighten their grip. He finally manages to escape and heads to St Andrews, where he finds the Nazis hve set up a secret research lab.

It is up to him and a small band of friends to come up with an audacious and desperate plan to thwart the Germans.

Alistair Moffat’s “The Scots: A Genetic Journey” is a beautiful exploration of the earliest migration of people into and out of Scotland. The author also explores how the different peoples moved about and interacted.

He makes use of DNA evidence given that there is not much to go on to make the conclusions he does. However, when there is other evidence, the DNA provides some interesting insights that might confirm some mythical history, such as the likely builders of important buildings and monuments.

He explores Scottish DNA going as far back as when their ancestors first left the savannahs in Africa, right to the 21st century. It chronicles some interesting patterns of population change, conquest, migration due to the clustering of genes over different areas.

Some of the facts he brings to light include the likelihood that a descendant of the Vikings in the Western Isles or Orkney is more likely related to a Pole or Pakistani than to their fellow Scots.

The main takeaway is that all people came from Africa, and that race and nationality are essentially meaningless, given that humans have been migrating and moving since time immemorial.

Alistair Moffat’s novel “Scotland: A History From Earliest Times” is a work that explores Scottish history from its early founding in fire and ice to the clamor for Scottish independence.

It is a heart achingly magnificent, poetic, humorous, inspiring, depressing, shocking, humorous and bloody tale all at once. He takes the perspective not only of the royalty and lairds familiar to many people, but also of their ancestors who trod the bubbling braes, the rocky outcrops and green lands.

He writes of the artists, the Vikings, bards, explorers, poets, soldiers, musicians, crofters and warriors among many others.

Moffat acknowledges that history is mostly populated by men as he is at pains on how to incorporate women into his works. He infuses the story with depth and richness and ensures that facts and myth collide even as they are both treated well.

He also makes certain that Scotland the varied peoples and faces within it come to life.

At the center of it is the angst ridden and complex relationship between Scotland and England. It comes with attempts at genocide, efforts to control and wipe out large swathers of teritory and gruesome battles.