Nick Hanna was educated at Marlborough College, Wilts, and the Institut Britannique at the Sorbonne, Paris. Later he studied Social Anthropology at Sussex University.

After graduating, Nick set off on a 10-month backpacking trip through Europe, Egypt, Sudan, Kenya, Sri Lanka, India and Nepal. On his return to London, he gained journalism experience working on the alternative magazine Undercurrents and began selling travel features to magazines and newspapers, including The Guardian, Harpers & Queen, Time Out and Business Traveller. He was also the first travel editor of National Student, for which he travelled the world extensively.

In 1986 he set off to write his first book and travelled for 18 months in the tropics, covering 200 beaches and islands in 22 countries for the BMW Tropical Beach Handbook (1989).

His interest in snorkelling and diving led to a collaboration with marine scientist Sue Wells to write the Greenpeace Book of Coral Reefs, which received a commendation in the 1992 Sir Peter Kent Book Conservation prize.

Since then he has written numerous guidebooks for major travel publishers such as AA Publishing, Thomas Cook and National Geographic, as well as continuing to freelance to the national and international press.

Nick was instrumental in the development of New Holland's Dive Sites of the World series in his capacity as Series Consultant. This highly successful series now has 17 titles in print. He continues to write about scuba diving for the travel pages of the Sunday Times.

Nick has a life-long interest in photography and currently contributes to four professional photo libraries. He lives in Hastings Old Town and has two sons, Luke and Oscar.