James Hogg (1770–1835) is best known for the novel The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner. His family were farmers, but became labourers on a neighbour’s farm after his father was declared bankrupt. Hogg worked for a time as a shepherd’s assistant and later a shepherd, teaching himself to read from the newspapers and other works passed to him by the wife of his employer. In 1790 he began working for James Laidlaw, who helped Hogg further his education by allowing him access to his library. He started writing songs and plays. He began to be recruited for various anthologies including Walter Scott’s The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border and in 1810 moved to Edinburgh to pursue a full time writing career. Hogg was a prolific writer throughout his life, producing novels, poetry and songs up until his death in 1835.