A little more about the author
So, who is Malcolm Finbow?
I would describe myself as a bit of a jack-of-all-trades and a calculated daredevil. My main focuses in life have been science and my family. The former began aged 14, when I set my sights on becoming a scientist. The latter I started at 19, when I had the fortune to meet the love of my life whilst at university in Edinburgh.
At school I was willingly immersed into science and went on to study Biochemistry at Heriot-Watt University, followed by a PhD at Glasgow University, with a lifelong colleague and friend, John Pitts.
Why do I also describe myself as a calculated daredevil? Well, I’m not reckless, but my wife will tell you I’m prone to suddenly disappearing on impromptu, solo mountain runs when she’s not looking.
Early in our marriage, I had the opportunity to work in California, so, with a young baby in our midst, we headed to the prestigious Caltech in Pasadena. It’s not populated by absent-minded dreamers as portrayed in the TV series, The Big Bang Theory; rather it was filled with Nobel Prize winners and it was a very exciting place to be 40 years ago.
We returned to Scotland three years later (plus another baby), when John offered me a post in his lab. Our research team moved to the world-famous cancer research institute, the Beatson, in Glasgow. I got paid for doing a job I loved and led a research team in the 1990s.
Did I make any earth-shattering discoveries? No. But I’ve been privileged to meet many who have. Scientific endeavour, for the vast majority of us, is the craft of serendipity. Mine was discovering at Caltech, along with several other labs, the molecular basis of one aspect of how cells talk to one another; and with American colleagues, in the 1990s, identifying a target for a viral protein that can cause cervical cancer.
I moved from the lab, twenty years ago, to take a personal chair at the newly formed Caley – the affectionate name of Glasgow Caledonian University. A decade later, I retired as the Professor of Cell Biology, after leading the Biomedical Science department for four years.
Mind you, I’d be the first to admit that my career has been eclipsed by my marriage of 45 years and raising three great boys – and now five grandchildren.
What are my other trades you may ask? Well, I’ve been fell walking, running and climbing since my early teenage years. I joined Shettleston Harriers nearly 40 years ago and I now run for the infamous Westies.
My hill running began when our foresighted Venture Scout Leader, Gilbert, introduced our motley crew of adolescents in south Manchester to the sport. That was a run up to Bow Stones in Lyme Park and Gilbert and I never looked back. Life in those teenage years in the 1960s was simple – tramping miles across the Peak District in all weathers, and climbing up crags when the leader didn’t fall off. I showed promise as a rock climber, but I found solo mountain running easier to fit into a busy life. My most youthful achievement on rock was climbing just about every route below the Severe grade on Stanage Edge at the age of 15, and dossing out in Robin Hood’s Cave for several days one Easter with my old school friend, Geoff Gobbett. It was a quiet place 50 years ago.
So, how did I get from a science lab to writing books? You might think that authoring a scientific paper is a far cry from penning a novel, including the genre of science fiction but it’s not. Both have to tell a story that rivets the reader. So, after 70 science publications, numerous grant submissions and reports, I’d like to think I have gained a moderate skill in storytelling.
My life as a fiction author started one very wet August week after the 2014 Commonwealth Games. My wife and I were confined to our holiday home by flooding near Ullapool. I didn’t intend to write a novel, it just happened. I found it intellectually stimulating and particularly liked that I didn’t have to apply for grants or have the frustration of failed experiments.
Two months later, Geoff read a nascent version of For the Love of Eilidh, in-between climbing on the Poldubh Crags and Etive sSlab with Mick Ryan, and felling trees at Craigallan. Geoff and I have continued our adolescent banter of deriding one another whenever possible but for once he was quiet and couldn’t put the book down. Since then, my laptop has fallen prey to three more novels, with a fifth in gestation.
The books
Romantic thrillers set largely in the Scottish Highlands.
For the Love of Eilidh
A Curse of Two Isles
Beyond the Infinity of Empty Space
For the Love of Francesca