Alan Harper

Alan Harper is a writer, journalist and editor who specialises in maritime, aviation and music matters. Born in Glasgow and brought up in Nairobi, he graduated from Exeter University in 1981.

Time spent in Chicago in his early 20s resulted, eventually, in the award-winning blues memoir Waiting For Buddy Guy, described by Elijah Wald as “the clearest-eyed view of the Chicago scene I’ve ever read”, and by Mojo as “beautifully wrought, populated with vivid and memorable characters… an evocative portrait of a bygone era flecked with insight, wit and warmth".

He learned to sail in Hong Kong, gaining his small-craft Master’s ticket in 1978, and passed the RYA/MCA Yachtmaster Offshore exam in 1993. In nearly 20 years at the UK’s biggest magazine publisher he won awards for writing and editing on Motor Boat & Yachting and Jets. As a freelance since 2002, he has edited magazines and written for The Guardian, Vanity Fair and the Financial Times, as well as numerous boating and aviation titles.

In many seasons aboard a succession of MBY’s boats, all called Prospector, he cruised extensively in UK and European waters from Skye to Gdansk. It was while weatherbound in Gosport that he first encountered a Greenvile Collins chart, in an antiques shop, and this resulted, eventually, in Master & Cartographer.

He moved from London to south Devon in 2005 with his wife and two sons. For more info go to alanharper co uk