Alan Davidson had a distinguished career as a writer and publisher of books on food and cookery. His greatest achievement was 'The Oxford Companion to Food' (1999), but this was anticipated by his trio of books on seafood, of which this was the first (published in 1972), as well as studies of the fish cookery of Laos;

an edition and translation, with his wife, Jane Davidson, of the 'Grande Dictionaire' of Alexandre Dumas, and even a novel, 'Something Quite Big', originally only samisdat, but finally exposed to the wider world in 1993.

Before turning to writing full-time in 1975, Alan Davidson saw wartime service in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve before entering the diplomatic corps with postings to Washington, The Hague, Cairo, Tunis and Brussels before his final appointment, as British Ambassador to Laos.

'Mediterranean Seafood' was indeed one outcome of his diplomatic travels, for the very first version of the book was designed to help his wife and colleagues unravel the linguistic puzzles encountered at the fish markets of Tunis.