Stanley Johnson, former MEP and Vice-Chairman of the European Parliament’s Environment Committee, has worked for the World Bank, the United Nations, and the European Commission in Brussels. He won the Newdigate Prize for Poetry in 1962, the Greenpeace Prize and the RSPCA’s Richard Martin Award in 1984, and the RSPB Medal and the WWF Leader of the Living Planet Award in 2015.

Between 2019 and 2023, he served as the International Ambassador for the Conservative Environment Network (CEN). He is currently President of the Gorilla Organisation, Chairman of GEDU–Global Education Advisory Board, and Adviser to the World Coastal Forum.

He has appeared in numerous reality television shows, including I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here and Celebrity Mastermind, where his specialist topic was the works of Sophocles.

He is the author of 12 non-fiction works on environmental and demographic topics, two volumes of memoir, and 11 novels, one of which—The Commissioner—was made into a film starring John Hurt.

In the Footsteps of Marco Polo is his 26th book.