Martin Gray taught for twenty-four years at the University of Stirling. Extended visits to Cameroon and Australia provided new insights and interests.


He has two Scottish children. Every summer, the family threw everything into the back of an elderly Fiat and drove to Italy, to stay in Camigliano, a tiny village in mountainous southern Tuscany. Two books were the fruit of these peaceful retreats: The Penguin Book of the Bicycle (with R Watson) and A Dictionary of Literary Terms.


Nearly twenty-five years ago, he started a travel company. Small in scale, but modestly large in ambition, Learn Italy takes groups to enjoy that country’s culture, history and bustling present-day reality.