ON A TEAR

If all goes to plan, Liam McIlvanney will have to amend his Twitter bio in the coming years. For a fair while now it has begun with the same words: “Academic, slow-motion crime writer, dad, Kilmarnock supporter, adoptive New Zealander.” A handful of constants in the life of the University of Otago professor who migrated with his wife, Val, and four young sons to Dunedin 14 years ago to become the first Stuart Chair of Scottish Studies.

All those descriptors still apply. For now.

McIlvanney is also co-director of the Centre for Irish and Scottish Studies and co-founder of the Celtic Noir festival in Dunedin. He teaches crime writing to university students while his own crime thrillers have snared him accolades and awards in his home countries old and new. His young boys have grown into teens and young men.