Dr James E. Herring was formerly the Head of the Department of Information Management, Queen Margaret University College, Edinburgh. Herring is now a retired academic, having taught in universities in Scotland and Australia for 34 years.

In his professional life, he was the author of 11 books on information literacy, ICT in schools and school libraries and gave presentations at many international conferences.

He was born in Lammermuir Crescent and brought up in Cedar Street, in Dunbar. He attended both Dunbar Primary and Dunbar Secondary School before going to Edinburgh University to study history. James has a PhD in Education from Charles Sturt University, Australia. The author has lived in Dunbar since 1987, with a 3 year break in Australia in 2004-2006. He is a keen cyclist, walker and reader of modern poetry and fiction, as well as a local historian. He is currently engaged on a social and oral history of Dunbar in the early 1950s, which covers The Haddingtonshire Courier in 1950, rationing, the whales at Thorntonloch, housing, entertainment and shops and shopping. A book covering these topics will follow this one. Dr Herring is a lifelong and long suffering supporter of Hibernian Football Club aka The Hibees.