Shane Johnstone grew up in Govanhill, a largely deprived area in Glasgow. He is the son of two artists and went on to become a musician, earning a living from gigging and touring around Europe with different bands, mainly focusing on folk music as well as American roots such as blues. Being working class in the music scene exposed him to the huge disparity of wealth in the arts communities and the chasmic contrast in opportunities for those with and without capital. After thirteen years in the music scene he made the change to writing and relished the therapeutic effects. Shane writes in English, Scots and Scottish Gaelic, all of which appear in the novel, and has had several pieces of prose and articles published by literary magazines such as Lallans, New Writing Scotland, Sgrìobag, and Pushing Out The Boat. He has a fascination with literature and spoken language, particularly minority languages and has is influenced by the profound everyday linguistic creativity of Glaswegian people.