Douglas Kynoch was born and brought up in Aberdeen, where he attended the Grammar School and Aberdeen University. After a year in Germany, he returned to his native city at the time when Grampian TV was about to open and was appointed one of their first announcer-presenters. After six years with the company, he moved to the BBC in Glasgow, becoming the Glasgow presenter of Reporting Scotland and the Mr Scotland of the Nationwide programme. After a Christian conversion, he left the BBC to join a Christian radio station. The following year, he returned to Queen Margaret Drive as one of the presenters of Good Morning Scotland, continuing to work in radio till his writing career began in the 1990s. His first book, Teach Yourself Doric, became an immediate best-seller.