Peter Gillman
Peter has had a long and distinguised career as a journalist. After leaving Oxford University, where he was editor of Isis, he worked for Town Magazine and the Daily Telegraph Magazine and then began to write for the Sunday Times as a contracted freelance.
After a two-year interlude at Radio Times, he joined the staff of the Sunday Times in 1971. He worked for the newspaper throughout the Harry Evans editorship and spent five years on the Insight investigative team, where he became its lead writer and deputy editor. He reported from hotspots such as Northern Ireland during the Troubles and Beirut during the Lebanon civil war. Peter left the Sunday Times staff after the Rupert Murdoch takeover in 1982 and wrote as a freelance for a wide variety of titles, including the Observer, Independent, Financial Times, Daily and Sunday Telegraph, Sunday Mirror and Mail on Sunday.
He continued to write for the Sunday Times Magazine, often in partnership with Leni, and some of their articles can be read on the Our Articles page. Peter has specialised in writing about climbing and mountaineering and has won seven annual Merit Awards from the Outdoor Writers and Photographers Guild, mostly for pieces written with Leni. He was chair of the guild for five years. He has written numerous books (see Our Books) and has worked in tv, as researcher, writer and assistant producer.
Leni Gillman
Leni studied psychology at Reading University and then, after having children (see below), trained as a teacher, working at all levels of education, from primary schools to colleges of further education.
She specialised in dyslexia and reading difficulties and also worked in a centre that welcomed newly-arrived immigrant children.
In 1978 she joined Peter in a writing partnership which has lasted until this day (also see below). She also wrote under her own by-line, specialising in education, collecting and travel. Her articles appeared in the Sunday Times, Financial Times, Independent and elsewhere.
Like Peter, she was an active member of the Outdoor Writers and Photographers Guild, and was the guild secretary for two years - another partnership with Peter, as he was the guild chair in that period.
Peter and Leni
Peter and Leni met when they were both at school in 1957. They were married in 1962 and had two children, Danny (born 1964) and Seth (1965).
They began their writing partnership with their book Collar the Lot, published in 1978. They have written numerous books and articles and are now fully accustomed to working together, observing that the most important rule is to agree what you want to write before you start writing it.
They have four grandchildren and live in south London.
