A LARGS writer has revealed how he once admitted stealing a book - and how his 'last deliberate criminal act' won him a tongue-in-cheek message from its author.

Mike Kernan, who has published two hit novels, makes the admission on the popular podcast The Book Alchemist, hosted by TV and radio presenter Heather Suttie.

He told her: “Stealing the book was my last deliberate criminal act.”

It happened in the late 1980s when he was staying overnight in south-west Scotland after a job interview.

Mike, 67, a former journalist, explained: “I booked into a bed and breakfast so I could have a look around next morning before a long drive home.

“It was a miserable night, so I didn’t venture out, and instead picked up a copy of Docherty, by William McIlvanney, from a bookcase in the guest house.

“I started reading, and got so caught up in the story I didn’t put it down till the early hours.

“I don’t condone stealing, but I had to know how it ended.

“The next morning, I sneaked it into my overnight bag so I could finish it when I stopped for a break on the way home.”

But there was a surprise twist to the story.

Thanks in large part to reading Docherty, Mike became a huge fan of McIlvanney, who also wrote the Laidlaw detective series and The Big Man, which was later turned into a film starring Liam Neeson and Billy Connolly.

About a dozen years after the theft, Mike’s daughter Lynn arranged to interview McIlvanney, regarded as 'the father of Tartan Noir', for a post-grad journalism course.

Unknown to her dad, she took along his copy of Docherty and told the celebrated author, who died in 2015, how it had been acquired.

Mike, who has lived in Largs for 33 years, said: “Luckily for me, he found the story amusing and even signed the book with a message which started, ‘I do admire a cultured thief; your crime flatters me’.

“The book, along with the inscription, is one of my most treasured possessions and now I’m an author myself, I like to think I’d have a similar reaction if anyone stole one of my books.”

McIlvanney's son Liam spoke to the News in 2018 about how he was loving living in Fairlie while on a 'sabbatical' from his day job as a professor at the University of Otago in New Zealand.

Liam has also written four crime fiction novels of his own, most recently The Heretic, which was published in 2022.

In his appearance on The Book Alchemist, Mike also talks about his own novels.

His first book, The Fenian, was written as a lockdown project in 2020 but became a surprise success. The sequel, Stopping To Rain, has also been snapped up by readers.

Both books are available from Amazon and are also stocked at Largs Library.

Recent guests on The Book Alchemist, which launched in December, include retired Scottish forensic psychiatrist Dr Rhona Morrison, entertainment journalist Billy Sloan, actor and Taggart star Colin McCredie, and rom-com author Shari Low.