Douglas Watt

Douglas Watt was born in Edinburgh in 1965 and grew up there and in Aberdeen. He's the author of a series of historical crime novels and a prize-winning account of Scotland’s Darien Disaster. He has an MA and PhD in history from Edinburgh University.

Douglas has written six historical crime novels set in late 17th century Scotland featuring investigative advocate John MacKenzie and his side-kick Davie Scougall. The books are first and foremost crime fictions but they are also journeys through the paradox of late 17th century Scotland – a time of witch hunting, religious fanaticism and blasphemy trials when the green shoots of the Scottish Enlightenment first appeared.

He is also the author of The Price of Scotland, a history of Scotland’s Darien Disaster which bankrupt the country and precipitated parliamentary Union with England in 1707. The book won the Hume Brown Senior Prize in Scottish History in 2008.