About the Author

photo: Thomas Brash

Duncan Lunan was born in Edinburgh in 1945 and grew up in Troon, Ayrshire, attending Marr College and Glasgow University. In 1968 he graduated as M.A. with Honours in English and Philosophy, with Physics, Astronomy and French as supporting subjects, and has a postgraduate Diploma in Education. In 1970 he became a full-time author, initially writing science fiction, then broadened his range to nonfiction with emphasis on astronomy, spaceflight and science fiction; he also undertakes a wide range of other writing and speaking as a researcher, tutor, critic, editor, lecturer and broadcaster. His book Children from the Sky: a speculative investigation of a mediaeval mystery, the Green Children of Woolpit was published by Mutus Liber in May 2012 (see Duncan’s website, www.duncanlunan.com, and www.childrenfromthesky.co.uk.) and was followed by two books for Springer, The Stones and the Stars: a new stone circle for Scotland, and Incoming Asteroid! What could we do about it?, published in November 2012 and 2013.

His earlier publications include three nonfiction books, contributions to 32 other books, nearly 1250 articles and 36 short stories, including ten for the comic strip Lance McLane, created by Sydney Jordan for the Daily Record. He was science fiction critic of the Glasgow Herald 1971-85 and ran its annual science fiction and fantasy short story competition 1986-92, followed each year by a creative writing course at Glasgow University’s Department of Adult & Continuing Education. That led in turn to the formation of the Glasgow Science Fiction Writers’ Circle, still flourishing 30 years later. In 1989 he edited Starfield: science fiction by Scottish writers, the first ever anthology of SF and fantasy by Scots, and for Jeff Hawke’s Cosmos, which is reprinting the world’s longest-running SF comic strip, he contributes notes on the stories as they appear. He reviews fiction for Interzone and Shoreline of Infinity, and non-fiction for Concatenation. His regular astronomy column The Sky Above You appears in several newspapers and magazines.

As Manager of the Glasgow Parks Dept. Astronomy Project, 1978-79, Duncan designed and built the first astronomically aligned stone circle in Britain for over 3000 years, which has been removed to make way for development, but will be re-created nearby. For updates see Duncan’s website, and the Facebook page ‘Friends of Sighthill Stone Circle’. From 1963 to 2010 he was a Council Member of ASTRA, the Association in Scotland to Research into Astronautics, a Curator of Airdrie Public Observatory 1980-81, 1987-97 and 2005-2008, and in 2006-2009 he ran an educational outreach project from the Observatory to schools, funded by the National Lottery. His other interests include ancient and mediaeval history, jazz, folk music and hillwalking.

After 30 years living in Glasgow, in 2012 Duncan returned to his home town of Troon, where he now lives with his wife Linda. He is the chairman of “Troon Writers” and of the “Astronomers of the Future Club” for beginners, also of the charity ACTA SCIO which oversees the AOTF and the campaign for the stone circle's reconstruction (www.actascio.org).