Meet the author: Douglas Lindsay

Douglas Lindsay chose the latter, and the rest is a history known to a growing army of fans, drawn by his evocation of Barney Thomson, the barber at the centre of a series of bizarre, violent, deeply funny, and quintessentially Scottish events that have now spanned seven novels. The Long Midnight, the first, has been translated into German, Italian, French and Hungarian.

He’s not easily categorised, but a blend of Christopher Brookmyre and Quentin Tarantino gives you a starting point to describe Lindsay.

So how did his own story begin 48 years ago in Lanarkshire? Let’s use his own blog (he is a professional writer, after all) : “Lindsay was born in 1964 at 2:38a.m. There is some dispute over the weather conditions at the time.

“He spent the first few years of his life being an ‘if I'd had him first I wouldn't have had another one’ kind of a kid. Even now he shows no remorse over this behaviour.

“Some decades later he left Scotland to live in Belgium for a while. In the interim period he had been to watch Meadowbank Thistle a lot, including their famous 1-1 draw with Rangers in the League Cup semi-final (a game that might have meant something had not the first leg been lost 4-0).

“In Belgium he met his wife, Kathryn, and he took the opportunity to drop out of regular employment and join her on a Foreign Office posting to Senegal, West Africa.”

This was where the option of diplomatic spouse emerged. He takes up the story in our interview. “I had a B.Sc. from Glasgow University and worked for the MoD in Glasgow and for Nato in Brussels before we moved to Africa.

“There, I had the choice between filling my days on the golf course and drinking G&T, or doing something I would enjoy. My favourite subject at school had been English, so writing was an obvious way to go.”

Lindsay tried various short stories, including one featuring Barney Thomson, before being able to win a publishing deal. But, since 1999, he has had a prolific output, completing 10 novels, including seven in the Barney Thomson series, now published in an omnibus version as The Barbershop Seven.

Where did such a memorable character come from?  Real life, Lindsay swears. “He’s based on this bloke where I got my hair cut about 30 years ago. Obviously, not the things that happen to him, but the scene in The Long Midnight where all the customers are refusing to get their hair cut by him and waiting for the other barbers…I was there.

“It was probably too close but, as I assumed it would never get published, it didn’t really matter. I don’t know if he knows (about the Barney books), or even if he’s still alive. I haven’t been back to the shop.”

But what about the fictional elements of the narrative? They have to be fun, insists Lindsay, but “I just write what’s in my head…and then rewrite”.

And artistic influences? Does he accept my references to Brookmyre and Tarantino?

“For a writer, I don’t read that much. I’ve met Chris Brookmyre once at a reading, and he told me he’d read The Long Midnight. I confess I’ve not read any of his, though. Tarantino, yes, with Pulp Fiction – that’s been a huge influence. But it’s the only movie of his I’ve seen.”

Lindsay admits he’s a bit “detached from it all”, having spent his writing career living abroad,  in Marybank, near Dingwall, from 2000-2 , or in Wells, Somerset, for the past decade.

Their current base allows his wife to continue at the Foreign Office, splitting her work between London and home, while he’s been an active father for their two children, Jessica and Hamish, now 14 and 12.

He describes his writing schedule as based on school terms, but still aims to produce 5000 words a day.

And if they’re not up to scratch, his first critic is close to home. “I show the books first to Kathryn; she’s not at all diplomatic, nor is she sycophantic.

“For a crucial part of The Haunting of Barney Thomson (sixth book in the series), I knew it was a mess, but I handed it over. She told me: ‘It’s a mess.’ So I fixed it…I just needed telling.”

Lindsay’s own story is worth telling, even more so if the current plans by Robert Carlyle to film The Long Midnight come to fruition. The author has openly voiced scepticism on his blog, but details are starting to come together and it appears he's quietly hopeful.

The big question that remains: will they serve G&Ts in the Scottish sunshine at the premiere? Or will it rain, and at least one guest suffer a spectacularly messy, comic death? My money’s on the latter…