Alan is the author of several books on footpaths in Cumbria including - with co-author and wife, Lesley - Corpse Roads of Cumbria, which won the 2019 Lakeland Book of the Year prize. He is a former journalist who worked in the regional press. He now lives in Whitehaven, Cumbria. Alan and Lesley enjoy nothing more than walking a footpath and hearing the stories it has to tell. Alan's latest book, The Postal Paths, looks at the paths walked by rural posties delivering mail to the most remote homes and farms in Britain; the walking routes were phased out in the 1960s in favour of using a van.