As an undergraduate at Aberdeen University in 1922, Linklater wrote the first musical comedy for the Aberdeen Student Show, "Stella, the Bajanella", with music by J. S. Taylor. Twenty-four years later, during his tenure as Rector of the University of Aberdeen, his play "To Meet the Macgregors" was performed as the 1946 Student Show. Abandoning medical studies in Aberdeen, Linklater spent 1925–1927 in Bombay, India as an assistant editor of "The Times of India", then travelled extensively before returning to Aberdeen as an assistant to the Professor of English and spending 1928–1930 as a Commonwealth fellow at Cornell and Berkeley.