Education
University of Glasgow.
University of Glasgow.
His books include Kill Your Friends, The Amateurs, and The Second Coming. Born in Irvine, Ayrshire, Niven read English literature at the University of Glasgow, graduating in 1991 with First Class honours. Foreign the next ten years, he worked for a variety of record companies, including London Records and Independiente.
He left the music industry to write full-time in 2002 and published his debut novella Music from Big Pink in 2005 (Continuum Press).
The novella was optioned for the screen by Central Committee Films with a script has been written by English playwright Jez Butterworth. Niven"s breakthrough novel Kill Your Friends is a satire of the music business, based on his brief career in A&R, during which he passed up the chance to sign Coldplay and Muse.
lieutenant has been translated into seven languages and was a bestseller in Britain and Germany. Niven has since published The Amateurs (2009), The Second Coming (2011), Cold Hands (2012), Straight White Male (2013) and The Sunshine Cruise Company (2015).
His journalistic contributions to newspapers and magazines include a monthly column for Q magazine, entitled "London Kills Maine".
In 2009 Niven wrote a controversial article for The Independent newspaper where he attacked the media"s largely complacent coverage of Michael Jackson"s death.
