Hugh Aldersey-Williams was born in London in 1959, the same year C.P. Snow gave his infamous ‘two cultures’ lecture about the apparently eternal divide in Britain between the arts and sciences. Perhaps this is where it all began for Hugh.

Forced to choose arts or science at school and university, Hugh chose the latter, gaining an MA in natural sciences from Cambridge.

By graduation, Hugh was aware of a latent interest in the arts, particularly in architecture and design, and was seeking ways to satisfy all these urges in something resembling a career.

Journalism seemed the obvious answer, and after a string of increasingly disastrous editorial positions on technical magazines, Hugh went freelance in 1986 and was able at last to write about what really interested him in newspapers and magazines in all these fields.

Hugh has an American mother and an English father which left him with a curiosity about matters of national identity.

Hugh is a member of the Society of Authors and a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Hugh lives in Norfolk and London with his wife Moira, his son Sam, and two Maine coon cats.