Allan was born in
Wimbledon, on 22 July 1936 and attended
King's College School there. Allan's first job in publishing, in late 1952, was as an office junior at
Amalgamated Press (later
Fleetway, then
IPC). He worked on the weekly comic
The Comet, and the monthly titles
Cowboy Comics and
Super Detective Library, edited by Ted Holmes. Following a period of national service in the
Gordon Highlanders from November 1954 to November 1956, having been on active service in
Cyprus, Allan returned to Amalgamated Press and after working on
Super Detective Library, eventually became co-editor of what was now known as "Cowboy Picture Library", with
Alan Fennell. He handled the
Davy Crockett and
Kansas Kid monthly titles. Eventually, he was recruited to join the team producing
Marty, the first photo-strip teenage romance weekly published by Newnes and Pearson. Here he met his future wife, Gillian, and made the decision to become a freelance writer instead of editing. He has remained a freelance ever since. Later, he was heavily involved with Alan Fennell's
Century 21 Publishing company, becoming associated with
Gerry Anderson classics such as
Stingray,
Thunderbirds, etc. He was also the mainstay scriptwriter for Fennell's
Look-In magazine, and at one time was writing every strip in the paper, including
DangerMouse. Allan also wrote for many other outlets, and penned several of the
Garth adventures for the
Daily Mirror. In January 1990, he and his wife moved to France. Allan died of cancer on 16 July 2007, having been admitted to hospital the previous Thursday, at least six days before his 71st birthday. ==Bibliography==