Alan is a Scottish writer for screen, stage and page (the latter represented by AM Heath).
He is currently touring Scotland with his series of plays THE MOIRA TRILOGY, which was called by ‘an absolute classic of Scottish working-class comedy’ ★★★★ (Scotsman). Its middle chapter, MORE MOIRA MONOLOGUES, won a Fringe First at the Edinburgh Festival in 2017 and was nominated for ‘Best New Play’ at the Critics’ Awards for Theatre in Scotland, and the two shows which bookend it, THE MOIRA MONOLOGUES (2009) and MOIRA IN LOCKDOWN (2022), both enjoyed several sold-out Edinburgh Fringe runs and numerous tours of their own.
In 2020, Alan presented a Caledonia TV documentary INSIDE THE MIND OF ROBERT BURNS, which was screened on BBC Scotland.
In 2016, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Stirling for his outstanding contribution to Scottish culture.
For his novels, Alan was named as the Glenfiddich Spirit of Scotland Writer of the Year 2011 and has twice been shortlisted for Scottish Arts Council Fiction of the Year prizes (2009 and 2011).