Reg McKay

Reginald David McKay (15 July 1953 - 19 October 2009), who published as Reg McKay, was a Scottish social worker, columnist and author. After working for twenty years as a social worker in Glasgow, he authored bestselling crime novels and books on true crime. After a terminal cancer diagnosis in 2009 he started a Daily Record column, the Cancer Diaries, in which he wrote about the cancer's effects on his life. Early life Reginald David McKay was born on 15 July, 1953 in Keith, Moray, which was then a part of Banffshire. He attended Keith Grammar School but dropped out at the age of thirteen and, according to himself, began to lead a delinquent lifestyle. The family moved to Govan after McKay's father obtained a job in Glasgow, where McKay attended Govan High School, where he was bullied and, on two incidents, slashed for his north-eastern roots.

In 1982, McKay wrote a court report for Paul Ferris, an eighteen-year-old detainee at Longriggend Young Offenders' Institute who had stabbed another inmate. In 1998, Ferris was caught selling Uzi submachine guns in Durham and jailed. McKay, who encouraged Ferris to tell his story, proceeded to co-author The Ferris Conspiracy (2001) with him; it sold well in Scotland.