White Rose York Tours are the brainchild of Alan Sharp, a highly experienced tour guide and history author. Alan spent four years working in Edinburgh with Sandemans New Europe, the originators of the free tour concept and the largest tour operators in the world. It was his love of history, and his love of sharing that history, that drew Alan to York, one of the most historic cities in the world.

Since 2004 the Free Tour industry has grown into the largest new innovation in the tourist industry. Cities all over the world now boast a Free Tour, and often it is the first thing tourists look for when they go to a new city, having had great experiences in previous cities. The Free Tour concept ensures that the traveller can get a great tour at a price they can afford, because they themselves decide what the price will be. And not only that, unlike paid tours where you don’t know what you are going to get, Free Tour guests only have to decide after they have already experienced the tour and discovered the value for themselves.

About Alan Sharp

Alan is the author of three books and numerous magazine articles, on popular history and also on crime history. He is formerly a moderately successful stand-up comedian who appeared on television on the show FHM Stand Up Hero on ITV4 and played regularly at clubs around the country. In 2012 he appeared as a contestant on Mastermind, gaining a respectable score of 26, and also won a large amount of Money beating The Beast on The Chase. He has also appeared on a number of TV documentaries as an expert on Victorian newspapers. One of Alan’s books was published by the History Press in May 2015, and is a popular history  book about the city of York. Recently he authored a pair of walking books for the A-Z, one for York and the other for Edinburgh. If you would like to purchase any of Alan’s books, please click on the links below.

	London Correspondence: Jack the Ripper and the Irish Press A study of how the newspapers covered the grim story of the first serial killer to make headlines across the world, looking especially at the Irish newspapers who had their own political agenda to fulfil.	Click Here to Purchase
	A Grim Almanac of Edinburgh and the Lothians 365 stories from Edinburgh’s grim and gruesome past, including royal murders and intrigue, street battles, plague, witchcraft, and the desperate deeds of Mr Burke and Mr Hare.	Click Here to Purchase
	A Grim Almanac of York 365 stories from York’s rich and varied history, highlighting the darker side of the Capital of the North, featuring murder and mayhem, battles and royal intrigue, from the Roman beginnings of the city to the days of Dick Turpin and beyond.	Click Here to Purchase