Scottish writer Alan Robert Clark was BOTD in 1951. Born in Largs, Ayrshire, he was educated in Stirling. He moved to London to study at King’s College, but left without taking a degree to pursue a career in copywriting. He worked as a freelance journalist and biographer, co-authoring the memoir Camera Girl with Fleet Street photographer Doreen Spooner. After being mentored by novelist Sue Townsend, he published his debut novel Rory’s Boys in 2011, a rollicking comedy about the residents of a gay retirement village. His 2018 novel The Prince of Mirrors, a queer reading of the life of Prince Albert Victor, was widely acclaimed, and followed by Valhalla, a psychological portrait of Queen Mary of Teck. His most recent novel, the historical drama The Redemption of Isabel Farrar, was published in 2023. Clark met his life partner Robert Palmer, in 1976, remaining together until Palmer’s death in 2022. He lives and works in London.