He left school, St Mirin's Academy in Paisley, at age 15 and worked in a blacksmith's workshop, then served an engineering apprenticeship.
[7] Duignan had one stage play produced (co-written with Ian Donald Cochrane Hopkins[8]), and had work performed on TV and Radio, including Not the Nine O'Clock News and Naked Video.
His works of fiction include Skelp the Aged,[9][10] co-written with Ian Donald Cochrane Hopkins, The Buick Stops Here,[11] co-written with Ian Donald Cochrane Hopkins, The Lambshank Redemption,[12] co-written with Ian Donald Cochrane Hopkins, and the Gerry Sweeney/Katherine Black trilogy Saving The Last Dance,[13] Katherine Black Doesn't Dance[14] and Things To Do When The Music Stops.
[15] Hopkins and Duignan began writing Skelp the Aged as a play, before deciding to make it a novel.
[9] The three novels in the trilogy by Hopkins and Duignan follow hapless anti-heroes Mungo and Ethel Laird, in and out of trouble - and jail - as they struggle to maintain a living as a bookies.