Like Byron before him, Eric Linklater was educated at Aberdeen Grammar School and his best known novel, 'Juan in America' (1931), is a humorous narration of the adventures of Juan Motley, a descendent of Byron's Don Juan, let loose on the United States during the prohibition years. Many of Linklater's other novels draw on his varied experiences: as a Scottish National Party candidate, service in Italy during the Second World War and Edinburgh during the1950s. But it was Orkney, the land of his ancestors and for many years his own home, that inspired much of his writing.