THE EX-LOVER of best-selling author Janice Galloway has been arrested in connection with alleged incidents at her home.

Pianist Graeme McNaught, 54, was arrested on Saturday at his flat in Mount Vernon before appearing at Hamilton Sheriff Court. He was held in custody until his court appearance on Monday in connection with alleged incidents at the house near Uddingston on Monday and Tuesday of last week.

Facing a total of four charges, including an offence linked to stalking laws, he appeared in private, made no plea or declaration and was given bail.

Ms Galloway, 58, lives with her opera singer husband Jonathan May near Uddingston. They share their home with their friend Alison Cameron.

Mr McNaught, a former Royal Conservatoire of Scotland lecturer, had been involved in a six-year on-off relationship with Ms Galloway during which their son James, 22, was born. They first met in 1990 as her career began to take off.

In May 2003, the pair performed together at the University of Aberdeen Writers' Festival. The collaboration paired Ms Galloway's reading of extracts from her award-winning novel Clara, about the wife of composer Robert Schumann, with Mr McNaught's playing.

Ms Galloway's debut novel, The Trick Is To Keep Breathing, was followed by top sellers such as Foreign Parts, which won the £10,000 McVittie Prize for fiction in 1994.

A former English teacher, Ms Galloway was the first Scottish Arts Council writer-in-residence to Barlinnie, Cornton Vale, Dungavel and Polmont prisons and has written and presented series for BBC Radio Scotland.