After a career as an international public relations executive, Alan Ogden turned his passion for travel and photography into photographing and writing about some of the places dearest to him. His books include Romania Revisited: On the Trail of English Travellers, 1602-1941, Revelations of Byzantium: The Monasteries and Painted Churches of Northern Moldavia, and Fortresses of Faith: A Pictorial History of the Fortified Saxon Churches of Romania, among others. He was a founder member of Pro Patrimonio, an NGO whose main mission is the conservation, rescue and reactivation of the cultural heritage of Romania, especially in architecture, and also of the Patrick Leigh Fermor Society, which published the quarterly The Philhellene. He lives in London, England.