Les Wilson

Les Wilson is a writer, journalist and award-winning documentary film-maker. His university was an early career in regional and evening newspapers, and an overland journey to India. He became an on-screen reporter on Scottish Television’s nightly news programme and later the editor of the channel’s political programme, Ways and Means. It was in this role that he witnessed the vote of confidence that brought down Callaghan’s government and led to the Thatcher one in 1979. Although his work has taken him to six continents and challenging locations like Chernobyl and Southern Sudan, he still believes that night in Westminster to have been the most remarkable scene he has ever witnessed.

As a documentary-maker, he has directed several films and his “political” documentaries include The Englishing of Scotland, Independence Day and, in Gaelic, Diomhair (Secret). He is the co-author of Scotland’s War, based on a 30-part documentary series he directed. Fire in the Head is his first published novel.