London Book Award nomination Jackie Kay: "One of Kay's great skills as a writer is the way in which she explores the nebulous territory of the emotions."

The Guardian on Red Dust Road: “One of Kay's great skills as a writer is the way in which she explores the nebulous territory of the emotions. She never judges or oversimplifies, and displays no rage or rancour at birth parents who are secretive about their pasts and who want her to remain the secret she has always been . . . like the best memoirs, this one is written with novelistic and poetic flair. Characters come alive with pitch-perfect speech, language is lyrically and imaginatively rendered, there is page-turning suspense. Even the structure defies expectation, criss-crossing the decades back and forth.”

Scottish poet and novelist Kay first made her mark in the literary world in 1991 with her collection of poems The Adoption Papers. Her novels include Trumpet – an account of drag king jazz musician Billy Tipton’s life which won the Guardian Fiction Prize. Kay was made an MBE in 2006. Photo Mary McCartney