David Rae lives in Scotland and grew up in a world where hordes of workers spill out of factories, a world where fog and smoke shroud all kinds of creatures, a world where ruined castles, factories and houses are haunted by ghosts, gangs and memories. He lives in a world where witches have been burned at the cross and martyrs have been hung on the Gallowgreen.

Since a child, he has tried to capture that world in words, poems, and stories. He has read every trashy novel, every children’s book and every comic that came his way. Thank God for public libraries.

He studied Botany, Architecture, Mathematics, Computers, Geography, and Ecology. He worked in a candy factory (not as an Oompa-Loompa), as a scaffolder and ditch digger. He has worked as a draftsman and as an ecologist, as a statistician and as a policy maker. He is married and has four lovely children and now lovely grandchildren. And he continues to read and to write and marvel at the world he lives in.

Crowman is his first novel and the start of a dark fantasy trilogy.