Alexander Starritt was born half-Scots, half-German in 1985, and grew up in the Scottish north-east. Educated in Edinburgh and at Oxford, he translates fiction, poetry and academia from German, including Stefan Zweig's A Chess Story. He has reviewed for the Times Literary Supplement, The Spectator and the Mail on Sunday, and his short fiction has been shortlisted for the Paris Literary Prize. His first novel, The Beast, was published in 2017 by Head of Zeus.