Antony Mason

Antony Mason is the author of more than 80 books — mostly illustrated books on history, art, current affairs, geography and travel. They include A History of Western Art (Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2007), as well as biographies for children on Leonardo da Vinci, Rembrandt, Monet, Cézanne, Matisse, Picasso and Chagall. He has written a number of travel guidebooks, including the Cadogan Guide to Bali, the DK Eyewitness Guide to Belgium and Luxembourg and the DK Top 10 Guide to Brussels, Bruges, Antwerp and Ghent. As the Telegraph Travel ‘Brussels Expert’, he contributes online travel guides, and writes occasionally for the Daily Telegraph’s weekend travel section. He has recently completed three books for Quercus: Dream Islands, Dream Cities and Spiritual Places.

As an author, he finds real pleasure in unravelling complex or specialist subjects, identifying what makes them interesting, and then explaining them in a way that will appeal to the non-specialist. In this vein, he wrote The New Europe and China: the new superpower? for the Aladdin/Watts World Issues series (2005–6), and Ancient Civilizations of the Americas (BBC Worldwide, 2001). He has also written text for more than 50 websites, and has translated books from French. He is closely involved with the Intergenerational Foundation, which seeks to persuade policy-makers to think in the long-term in order to leave a just legacy to young and future generations.

Before he began writing full-time, he trained as an editor in publishing. He lives in south London with his Belgian wife Myriam.