Nicholas Saunders

Nicholas Saunders (25 January 1938 – 3 February 1998), born Nicholas Carr-Saunders, was a British social inventor, activist, greengrocer, property developer and entrepreneur in the English 'alternative' movement from the 1970s until his death in a car crash near Kroonstad, South Africa.

He attended Ampleforth College and studied engineering at Imperial College for four years.

In 1975, after travelling around the country in his live-in van, Saunders published the larger Alternative England and Wales guide, similar to Alternative London. on the frontage of the shop and, inside the yard, a coin-operated animated wooden sculpture.

Positive personal experience with MDMA (ecstasy) in the 1990´s led Saunders to investigate and write about this drug.

Personal life and death In 1981, his son, Kristoffer was born. During the 1980s he lived alone and suffered from depression. In the 1990s "he fell in love with Anja Dashwood, with whom he collaborated and lived, in the flat above Neal’s Yard, for the rest of his life". At the time of his death, he was researching the use of psychoactive drugs by peoples in various parts of the world as part of traditional social rituals . Alternative England and Wales. 1975. E for Ecstasy. 1993. Ecstasy and the Dance Culture. Revised and updated version of E for Ecstasy, 1995. Ecstasy Reconsidered. Revised and updated version of Ecstasy and the Dance Culture, 1997.

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