Some things about myself:
I was born in Aberdeen and live in Edinburgh now. When I grew up, whenever Aberdeen was referenced on TV it was because you were supposed to think it was very far away. It wasn’t very far away from me. It was at the end of my road.
I was diagnosed with dyspraxia and autism at ten, and read a lot about how people categorised in this way would see the world differently. I didn’t really know which bits of the world they were talking about. I’m still not sure I really do.
As I got older I became more and more interested in stories where people weren’t at the centre of things: where the Earth was part of a wider universe, where our society with its chairs and houses was a tiny part of Earth’s history anyway. I think it comes from the idea that everyone is at the centre of their story really; that Aberdeen isn’t always far away. So I guess I try to write in that spirit: where collective humanity is about everyone’s right to have a story, rather than any belief they all have to be shared.
Robert Shepherd: Writer 