Chris Brookmyre (MA 1989)

After graduation I worked for a short time in journalism, and for the past ten years as a full-time novelist. I put my memories of student days to creative use in my 2001 book A Big Boy Did It And Ran Away, which provides a potent source of nostalgia for anyone who was at Glasgow University during the 1980s.

My first formal involvement with the university since graduation came in 2004, when I was invited to the Chancellor's Dinner. Being one of the few people present not there due to his or her role in the business or financial sectors, I assumed my invitation was either in reflection of my profile as a successful novelist, or issued by a random administrative error. The following summer I received confirmation that it was the former, when I was named the University's Young Alumnus of the Year, something I consider among my greatest honours.

I have subsequently returned to the university to participate in students' literary events, and gently rib my alma mater again in my 2007 novel, Attack of the Unsinkable Rubber Ducks, where it appears in fictionalised form as " Kelvin University ".