My Life as a Man

‘Compulsive, page-turning stuff.’ – Alex Gray

‘A fierce writer, devoting an equal ferocity to love as to depravity.’ – The Guardian

‘This is a novel with a wholly individual flavour ... Frederic Lindsay is one of the most interesting and underrated of contemporary Scottish novelists.’ – Allan Massie

‘This unusual novel holds the attention from start to finish.’ – The Sunday Herald


When factory owner Bernard Morton fires him from his first job, Harry Glass protests by impulsively going off with Morton’s car and the intriguing Mrs Morton. Shocked out of the life she has been living, Mrs Morton forms a bond with Harry as they are pursued from one city to another by the Morton brothers. Bernard wants his wife back; Norman is more concerned with the contents of a briefcase left in the car boot. When Harry and Mrs Morton are given shelter in a remote house in the Highlands, it seems they have found refuge. But by the time the Morton brothers find them they have been caught up in a world of sexual perversity and fantasy. My Life as a Man begins with a nation in the grip of anti-war fever, and ends with an old man’s discovery that life can still surprise him.

Frederic Lindsay was born and brought up in Glasgow, and now lives in Edinburgh. After graduating with first class honours in English Literature and Language he worked as a library assistant, a teacher and a lecturer before becoming a full-time writer in 1979. He is the author of over ten novels, including Brond, Kissing Judas and Death Knock.