Peter Burnett (author)
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Peter Burnett is an author from Aberdeenshire in Scotland. His novels include The Machine Doctor (2001) and Odium (2004). He has also self published 12 pamphlets, beginning in 1998.
Burnett was born into a middle class family in Aberdeenshire in 1967, the eldest son of two teachers. He attended the University of Aberdeen, where he gained an Honors degree in History. He trained in mime at L'École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq, in Paris and worked in theatre for five years, before being employed full time by Amnesty International. Later, while training as a financial planner Burnett wrote his first novel The Machine Doctor and in 2000 he returned to Glasgow University where he gained an honors degree (BD) in theology, winning the gold medal for Hebrew language.
Influenced by novelists as diverse as Todd McEwen, Thomas Bernhard and Michael Moorcock, and high-modern European fiction writers such as LF Celine and Wyndham Lewis, Burnett’s prose style changes freely from work to work. In 2003 Burnett entered no less than 60 absurdist entries for the Macallan Short Story Competition, including acrostics, obscenities and stories in telegraphic, beat or hip-hop styles. That was the last year this competition was run.
An interest in both theology and Middle-Eastern affairs saw Burnett work for three consecutive years in Occupied Palestine, notably in refugee camps in the Bethlehem area. Burnett also traveled widely in Israel, befriending Israeli activist Anat Hoffmann and political prisoner Mordechai Vanunu.
Burnett is also the founder and co-organizer of Thirsty Lunch, a program of free literary events in Edinburgh, Scotland, which ran in both 2004 and 2006. As an adjunct to the Edinburgh International Book Festival, Thirsty Lunch offers free readings from well-known and little known writers, in an informal setting.
Burnett will release a non-fiction work about food in 2007, called The Supper Book.
