Alex Wade

Career

Wade is the author of Wrecking Machine: A Tale of Real Fights and White Collars and Surf Nation: In Search of the Fast Lefts and Hollow Rights of Britain and Ireland. He has also contributed chapters to The Road Less Travelled, Seaside: Discover Britain's Best Beaches and Countryside: Discover the Best of Rural Britain (2010).

Wrecking Machine, chronicling Wade's fall from grace as a media lawyer and subsequent redemption through white collar and amateur boxing, was critically acclaimed, described by The Sunday Times as "a superb book..." whose success "is down to its honesty and irresistible storytelling" and "intelligent, articulate and brutally honest" by The Daily Telegraph.

Surf Nation, a literary odyssey around the surf scene of Britain and Ireland, was well received by the UK surf media and national press alike. Huck magazine said it was "addictive... Blows out of the water any doubts about the thriving surf culture that's taken root on the northern fringes of Europe", while The Surfer's Path said that "with his easy writing style and neat observation, Wade paints an insightful picture of a country that, liberated by neoprene, has grown a huge, pulsing, passionate surfing heart." Elsewhere in the surf media, Carve found Surf Nation "totally engrossing" and Fins magazine said: “Alex Wade has succeeded in a first – the first Brit bit of surf lit”. Meanwhile, among the national media, The Observer said: “You probably won't read another book on surfing this year, but even if you do, Surf Nation would be the best”, and The Times opined that Wade “has produced a work in the vein of Tom Wolfe’s The Pump House Gang that is passionate, benign, informative and gripping.”

Freelance journalist

Wade is well known in Britain for his freelance journalism. He has written for The Times, The Sunday Times, The Independent, the Independent on Sunday, The Guardian, The Observer, The Financial Times, the Daily Telegraph and The Sun, as well as a variety of magazines such as Coast, Huck, The Surfer's Path, Wavelength, Pit Pilot, Flush, Arena and Cornwall Today. Wade has also written for a variety of online media, in particular www.timesonline.co.uk and www.gamblingcompliance.com.

In 2009, Wade was short-listed in the Sports Journalists' Association awards as Sports Feature Writer of the Year. In the same year, Wade wrote a column about maritime life for The Times entitled 'The Coaster'.

As a freelance journalist, Wade writes often on law (for The Times); coastal activities, issues and characters (in particular, for The Times, FT, Coast and Cornwall Today); travel (for The Independent on Sunday, Times and Observer) and sport (for many sources). Wade is also the Arts Editor for Cornwall Today magazine, itself the winner of the Press Gazette's 'Best Regional Magazine' award in 2009, and also contributes book reviews for The Times Literary Supplement.

Media lawyer

Wade qualified as a solicitor with media law firm Carter-Ruck in 1994. He subsequently worked for Richard Desmond as Head of Legal Affairs as well as other legal practices. For much of his legal career, Wade also worked as a 'night lawyer' for the national press, in particular the Times, Sunday Times, Independent, Independent on Sunday, News of the World and Sun. However, aside from, in 2005, working as assistant to Tom Crone, Legal Manager for News Group Newspapers, Wade quit all legal work save night lawyer work in 2002.

Illness and blog

In 2009, Wade was diagnosed with cervical myelopathy, a disease affecting the spine, and Lyme disease. He underwent anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) in December 2009. In early 2010, he was diagnosed with "chronic Lyme disease", a controversial and unrecognized diagnosis. He writes of his battle to recover from ACDF and Lyme disease on his blog, www.surfnation.co.uk.

Personal life

Wade was born in London in 1966. He is married to Karen Wade, who is an artist.