A New York Times bestseller shaped at St Andrews
Peter Burns (MA Hons 2004) has spent almost two decades writing non-fiction and working as Managing Director at Polaris Publishing. In 2025, he realised his lifelong ambition of becoming a published children’s author with the release of his New York Times bestseller, Shadow Thieves. He reflects on his publishing career and the lasting impact St Andrews had on his work as an author.
I was born in Edinburgh and followed in the footsteps of my older brother and grandfather to the University of St Andrews in 2000. I adored my time at the University – they were among the best four years of my life. I return as often as I can with my wife and children; St Andrews is still such an important place to me.
I made lifelong friends across so many spheres of university life, from the mates I made in John Burnet Hall in my first year, to teammates in the Men’s Rugby Club, classmates in the English Department, and pals I just met in the pub. I had the most hilarious time as an academic child and then parent over four wild Raisin Weekends and countless nights in the great pubs around town.
A spark of ambition
The School of English at St Andrews was incredible and deepened an ambition I’d carried since childhood to become an author. I still draw upon so much that I learned at the University when I’m writing.
I think often of the 20th century crime novel module I studied in third year, the ‘Rise of the Novel’ module with Professor Michael Herbert in first year, or the creative writing module I took with Scotland’s fourth Makar, Kathleen Jamie, and the late, great, Professor John Burnside.
After I graduated, I wrote my first middle-grade children’s novel – and it wasn’t very good. At the time, of course, I thought it was brilliant, and I sent it out to numerous publishing houses – all of which wrote back with very nice, but strongly worded, rejection letters. I knew I wanted to be a writer, but the publishing world was a complete mystery to me.
So, I thought I’d try and get an inside track. I completed an MSc in Publishing at Edinburgh Napier University, interned at lots of different publishing houses and, finally, got a job at Birlinn Ltd in Edinburgh. I wanted to be an editor, but I got my foot in the door as a production assistant.
The accidental sports editor
A few years later, the company started a sports imprint and made me editor. One of the first books I commissioned was an oral history of the Scottish rugby team; however, the author missed the deadline to deliver the manuscript for three years in a row. It was an interview-based project and was proving too big for him to complete alone. Luckily, I knew a lot of the current Scotland team from my playing career, so I suggested that I could come on board as a co-author and we could write the book together. We published Behind the Thistle in 2010; he is now a great friend – we even co-host a weekly rugby podcast called The Offside Line.
So, while dreaming of being a children’s author, I’d accidentally become a sports editor and non-fiction writer. I started Polaris Publishing around a year later, focused on sports and popular culture. In the years since, I have written eleven sports books, two of which have been nominated for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award, and published many more.
Yet the dream to write middle-grade children’s books remained.
Then, just over ten years ago, I was on holiday with my two eldest kids in Highland Perthshire. We were staying in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by gorgeous mountains and thick forests, and I remember thinking to myself ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if there was a hidden school for criminals here?’ The idea stayed in the back of my mind, but I had very little space to sit down and develop it.
Living the dream
In 2019, I decided it was time. It took around three years to write, but at last Shadow Thieves was finished. My wife, who is now my agent, pitched it to UK publishers, and it has been published by HarperCollins in the UK and Simon & Schuster in the USA. It’s been the most incredible journey ever since.
The reviews have been wonderful; it has been nominated for the Carnegie Medal for Writing, and the US edition (published as The School for Thieves) was an instant New York Times bestseller. The second book in the series is scheduled for release in June 2026 and I’m currently in the middle of writing book three.
I am grateful to many people who helped me reach this point. The School of English at St Andrews, the University at large, and the town in general – with all the brilliant, incredible people I’ve met there over the years – have played as big a part as any. Thank you. Aien aristeuein (Ever to Excel).