Born in 1946, Alan Judd trained as a teacher but instead became a soldier and diplomat. He is now a full-time writer, contributing regular current affairs articles to various newspapers, most frequently the Daily Telegraph, as well as writing regular book reviews and acting as the Spectator's motoring correspondent. He is the author of several novels drawing on his military and diplomatic experience, the first of which, A BREED OF HEROES, won the Royal Society of Literature's Winifred Holtby award and was later filmed by the BBC. THE DEVIL'S OWN WORK, a literary ghost story inspired by Judd's meeting with Graham Greene, won the Guardian Fiction Award. His most recent work of fiction, LEGACY, a Cold War spy novel, the first of an intended trilogy, was published in 2001.

He is also the author of two accomplished biographies: FORD MADOX FORD, which won the Heinemann Award, and THE QUEST FOR C, the authorised biography of Mansfield Cumming, founder of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6).