Nigel Bird is the author of novels, novellas and short story collections, including the Rat Pack series,The Shallows, the Southsiders series, In Loco Parentis, Smoke, Mr Suit and Dirty Old Town. His work has appeared in a number of prestigious magazines and collections, including 2 editions of The Best Of British Crime,The Reader, Crimespree and Needle. He is currently an editorial consultant for the publisher All Due Respect books. He lives on the East Coast of Scotland in Dunbar with his wife and three children. As well as writing fiction, he has been a teacher for thirty years and has worked in a number of mainstream and special schools.