About the Author

Dr Thomas A. Christie is a Scottish author with research interests in popular culture, literary analysis, interactive fiction and modern cinema. He has many years of experience as a literary and publishing professional, working in collaboration with several publishing companies on both sides of the Atlantic including Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Applause Books, Crescent Moon Publishing and Robert Greene Publishing. His full-length works to date have focused upon subjects such as cinema history and literary criticism, as well as the production of original prose fiction.His work has featured at international venues including at the Centre Pompidou in Paris as part of a major exhibition focusing on the filmography of award-winning director Richard Linklater in December 2019, and in conjunction with the Banco do Brasil Cultural Centre in Rio de Janeiro relating to an extensive exhibition on the life and films of cinematic polymath Mel Brooks in February 2020. He and his books have featured in many publications including The Smithsonian Magazine, The Digital Bits, Dwell, The Media Education Journal, History Scotland and Retro Gamer.A passionate advocate of the written word and literary arts, Tom was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in 2018. Fellowship to this learned society is only awarded to those who can demonstrate that they have made significant contributions to social change, progress and development, and who support the RSA's mission to find practical solutions to social challenges. The RSA Fellowship is a community of leaders in the fields of art, literature, journalism and business who have made noteworthy contributions to society, culture or the arts.Tom is also a member of the Royal Society of Literature, the Society of Authors, the Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society and the Federation of Writers Scotland. Over the years he has produced original writing for respected organisations such as the Stirling Smith Art Gallery and Museum and the Dementia Services Development Centre, a leading independent higher education research unit based at the University of Stirling. Additionally, he is regularly involved in public speaking events and has delivered guest lectures and presentations about his work at many locations around the United Kingdom.Tom holds a PhD in English Studies, on the subject of Scottish Literature, from the University of Stirling. He has also been awarded a first-class Honours degree in Literature and a Master's degree in Humanities, specialising with distinction in British cinema history, from the Open University in Milton Keynes. He is currently an associate lecturer with Forth Valley College in Stirling. Dr Murray Cook is Stirling Council's Archaeologist and is from Leith originally, though he also lived and went to school in Edinburgh. He lives in Stirling with a long-suffering wife, three teenage girls and two pesky but loveable cats. He has undertaken numerous excavations across the region and published over 40 books and articles. He won a Stirling's Provost Award in 2018 for his work for the Council, where he has helped raise over �300,000 to be spent on community archaeology and research and has even got invited to see the Queen at Holyrood Palace, along with a few hundred others! He has appeared on several TV programmes, and has sometime even been paid! He writes a regular column in the Stirling Observer and runs Stirling Archaeology, a Facebook page dedicated to Stirling's fantastic heritage!Murray studied at Edinburgh University worked first for AOC Archaeology, rising from subcontractor to Commercial Director. His PhD dissertation, which has a rather long and boring title, was based on 10 years of research in Aberdeenshire on settlement patterns between 2000 BC and AD 1000.He is an Honorary Research Fellow at Stirling University, a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, runs an occasional course at Forth Valley College on Stirling and likes to do it in ditches (archaeology, that is!). He also co-runs regular training digs open to all under the name Rampart Scotland, and is an associate lecturer at Forth Valley College.Archaeology is at first glance an off-putting word, easy to say but hard to spell, and Murray has been called the Council's Archivist and Architect before. But he believes that archaeology should be open to all, it is our shared past and it belong to everyone, so barriers should be removed. On this basis Murray runs a series of free walks, lectures and digs through the year to allow people to explore their past - and it's open to everyone.