James Meek is a novelist, short story writer and journalist. Ηe was born in London in 1962 and grew up in Dundee, Scotland. He has published three novels, Mcfarlane Boils The Sea and Drivetime and, most recently, The People's Act of Love, which won the Ondaatje Prize and the SAC Book of the Year Award. He has published two collections of short stories, Last Orders and The Museum Of Doubt, and contributed to the acclaimed Rebel Inc anthologies The Children Of Albion Rovers and The Rovers Return.
He worked as a newspaper reporter for 20 years, until 2005, when he left the staff of the Guardian to devote more time to writing books, and reading them. As a reporter he lived in Russia and Ukraine from 1991 to 1999. In 2004 his reporting from Iraq and about Guantanamo Bay won a number of British and international awards. He lives in London, where he still contributes to the Guardian and the London Review of Books. See

More on James Meek:
1. The author discusses in a video(see below) the main issues of his latest book.
2. Some illuminating excerpts of his book relevant to the position of the contemporary writer today (here).
3. The author's official webpage here.