Author. He received world-wide recognition as a Welsh-born Scottish writer, who was prolific with a wide range of interests. He authored 23 novels but also a host of non-fiction books. He excelled in writing children's books receiving the 1944 Carnegie Medal for Children's Literature , which is the oldest and most prestigious award offered for children's books in England. Although born in Wales, he spent his childhood on the Orkney Islands of northern Scotland, which he considered his home. His father was a mariner, and maternal grandfather was a Swedish sailor who became a British citizen. After beginning studies for a medical career in 1916, he changed his major at Aberdeen University in Scotland to English literature. He served at the rank of private in the Royal Highland Regiment of Black Watch during World War I and received a head injury at the front line in Somme, France. At the end of the war, he returned to school graduating with a Master's Degree in English Literature from King's College in 1925. He began a career in journalism eventually becoming assistant editor of the "Times of India" in Bombay from 1925 to 1927. Returning to Aberdeen to teach English, he traveled to Persia and across the Caspian Sea to the Caucasus before reaching home. From 1928 to 1930, he visited the United States and China on a Commonwealth Fellowship and wrote novels of the series called "Innocent Abroad," which were "Juan in America" in 1931 and then "Juan in China" in 1937. While in the United States, he published "Poet's Pub" in 1930, the first in a series of his popular satirical novels. Other early novels include "White-Maa's Saga" in 1929 and "The Men of Ness" in 1932, which was burned in Germany after translated from English to German. In 1933 he married actress and cellist Marjorie McIntyre, and eventually had two sons and two daughters. He ran unsuccessfully as a political candidate for a Parliament seat receiving less than 4% of the vote. This led to his 1934 book, "Magnus Merrimen" and the 1935 book, "Lion and the Unicorn," which dealt with Scotland's dependency to England. Writing about widows of the Great War, he received recognition for his satirical yet serious 1938 book, "The Impregnable Women." In World War II, he served as a major in the Royal Engineers defending Orkney Fortress from Nazi raids and later, in the War Office trying to locate Italian art lost in the war. This experience led to his comedy about an Italian soldier during World War II, "Private Angelo" in 1946, which was adapted into a film in 1949. In 1944 he wrote his most popular and the Carnegie Award-winning novel, "The Wind on the Moon," with illustrations by noted cartoonist, Nicholas Bentley. After the war, he became rector of Aberdeen University from 1945 to 1948. In the "Dark of Summer" in 1956, he wrote about a Scottish soldier's investigation of a Norwegian collaboration with Nazi Forces during World War II. He wrote "A Man Over Forty" in 1963 and "A Terrible Freedom" in 1966. His 30th book was in 1972, "The Voyage of the Challenger," which gave a non-fictional account of the scientific around-the-world expedition of the HMS Challenger between 1872 to 1876. He wrote plays for BBC radio and stage performances. Known for his dry sense of humor, he enjoyed poking fun at the "Proper English Establishment." He wrote a three-volume autobiography: in 1941 "The Man on My Back;" in 1953 after a trip to the Far East, "A Year of Space;" and in 1970 "Fanfare for a Tin Hat." His last book was published in 1977, "Black Watch: The History of the Royal Highland Regiment," which he wrote with his youngest son, Andro Linklater. His oldest son Magnus Linklater CBE, followed in his father's footsteps, becoming a journalist, newspaper editor, and authoring several books on Scotland's history.