Since escaping the East Midlands for the lights of the big city, Adrian Harvey has combined a career in and around government with trying to see as much of the world as he can. He has a particular love for cities and the patina of centuries that lie beneath their ever-changing surface. The stories that hang between the past and the future, or in a chance encounter on the city street, are a continual source of inspiration. He can often be found transfixed, staring along a street with an unexpected vista. Landscape outside the city inspires him too. He is a keen hill walker and has undertaken extended routes in the Himalaya, the Andes, and particularly in Iceland, as well as regular trips to the damp and windy upland areas of the United Kingdom. He retains a relentless curiosity for the world. He lives in North London, which he believes to be the finest corner of the world's greatest city.

He has written four novels: Being Someone, The Cursing Stone, Time's Tide, and The Whirligig.