Quintin Jardine is a Scottish author of two series of crime novels, featuring the characters Bob Skinner and Oz Blackstone. Matthew Quintin Jardine was born in Motherwell on 29 June 1945, the son of two teachers. He was educated at Knowetop Primary School, Motherwell, and at the High School of Glasgow. He went on to study law at the University of Glasgow, briefly and without enthusiasm, before stepping cautiously in 1964 into a career which began in journalism, as a trainee on his local newspaper The Motherwell Times. He moved from Lanarkshire to East Lothian in 1971, and worked in Edinburgh... as a government information officer, a political spin doctor and finally an independent media relations consultant. As a member of the Conservative Party's professional staff he was involved during the 1980s in several key by-election campaigns, including Hillhead, 1982, Darlington, 1983 and West Derbyshire, 1986. As a consultant, his clients included the Faculty of Advocates, the Scottish Salmon Growers' Association, Cumbernauld Development Corporation, Dundas & Wilson CS, and Heart of Midlothian Football Club. Gradually he evolved into a full-time writer.
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