Nicholas Saunders was an entrepreneur of "alternative society" from London, England. He wrote the best-selling Alternative London in 1970 but was perhaps best known for his acquisition and transformation of Covent Garden's warehouses into the more holistic Neil's Yard in the 1970s. He first came across MDMA in 1988 and spent the next few years of his life studying and writing about. He wrote several books on the topic and maintained the Ecstasy.org website until his death. He died in a car accident in 1998 while in South Africa researching his next book on the connection between spirituality and psychoactives.