Alan Judd (1) (1946–)

Alan Judd is a pseudonym of Alan Edwin Petty, born in the UK. A graduate of Oxford University, he served as an officer in the British Army in Northern Ireland before later joining the Foreign Office. Since then, he has worked as a security analyst and a journalist. It was while working for the Foreign Office that he began writing novels. He made his literary debut with A Breed of Heroes (1981), which won the Winifred Holtby Award and was adapted by the BBC into a television drama. The main character, Charles Thoroughgood, returned in three more books so far, Legacy (2001), Uncommon Enemy (2012), and Inside Enemy (2014). Other novels include Short of Glory (1984), Tango (1989), and The Noonday Devil (1987). His historical fiction includes The Kaiser's Last Kiss (2003), which was adapted into the film The Exception in 2016, and Dancing With Eva (2007). In 1990, he published a biography of Ford Madox Ford, and wrote another novel, The Devil's Own Work (1991), paying homage to Ford. Judd is a regular contributor to the Daily Telegraph and the Spectator. In 1990, he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.