Alan Brown was born and educated in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. At the age of two he and his mother escaped when a German flying bomb crashed into their road exploding, flattening all but three properties. He has worked for local newspapers in Kent, then moved up to management, covering the country, and setting up promotions for two London companies. He and his wife Barbara have run three successful businesses of their own, and also managed pubs for Whitbread. He was then retired for several years, moving from the village in North Devon, where he completed his first book, The Houmits of Seynorgue, to a smaller residence in a delightful village a few miles down the road. Escape to Seynorgue came after many requests, eight years after book one.