Alan was born and raised in Scotland but has spent most of his adult life in London. Having achieved an MA in Art History at Glasgow University, he worked for many years in the art world at both an international auction house and an antique dealer. He then returned to academia, achieving an MA in Classical Civilisation in 2011, and later completed a Ph.D. in which he analyzed eighteenth-century attitudes towards the ancient Roman world. Elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland in 2017, his first book 'Classical Caledonia' was published in 2020. Since then he has written two more books: 'Walking the Antonine Wall' and 'The Road to Mons Graupius', both of which record his travels through Scotland in search of Roman history and heritage.