Neil Paterson

Greenock, Scotland, UK

Neil Paterson was Scottish novelist and screenwriter. He originally attended university with the intention of following in his father’s footsteps and becoming a solicitor, but quickly realized his passion laid with football after joining Edinburgh University AFC. He played for Buckie Thistle in the Highland League, and for Leith Athletic in the Scottish League and was captain of Dundee United in the 1936–37 season. He then decided to quit the sport and turned to sports journalism, landing a position with DC Thomson. He married Rose MacKenzie in 1939 and joined the Navy during the Second World War. After the war, he returned to writing and published his first novel On my Faithless Arm in 1946 under the pseudonym John Kovack. His second novel, The China Run: Being the biography of a great-grandmother, was published two years later. In 1951, Hodder & Stoughton published a collection of short stories titled And Delilah: Nine stories. The collection included a short story named Scotch Settlement, which was adapted by Paterson himself into the screenplay for the film The Kidnappers and kickstarted his career as a screenwriter. In 1959, he won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for Room on Top, based on the novel of the same name by John Braine.