Peter Hoffmann

He lives in Jamestown, Strathpeffer in the Highlands and is married to Alison. They have two sons, Will and Tom; the latter is an international epeeist and was part of the successful Scotland team which won the bronze medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Fencing Championships and the 2018 Commonwealth Fencing Championships. With the closure of Meadowbank Stadium Hoffmann founded the Memory Hold The Door-Meadowbank Sports Centre legacy project allowing people from throughout the world to record their memories, stories, experiences, photographs and other memorabilia of the facility. In 2018 he also launched a similar project Oxgangs - A Pastime From Time Past - Spirits Across The Air which has been edited into the first volume of a projected small series. His hobbies include literature, painting, fencing and exercising. Hoffmann made a cameo appearance in the film Chariots Of Fire in the scene featuring the Scotland v Ireland international.

He has written books on Edinburgh social history and sport. The Hermes Quartet – the god of speed - is a tetralogy of athletics based books by Hoffmann published between 2017 and 2020. The quartet includes A Life In A Day In A Year A Postcard From Meadowbank 1973-1978 (2017); A Practical Philosophy of 800 Metres Running Festina Lente (2018); The True Confessions Of Retep Nnamffoh: School's Out For Ever, A 1973 Edinburgh Young Athlete's Diary (2018) and The Way We Were (2020). Three Retep Nnamffoh books have also been published based on his teenage Letts' Schoolboy diaries for the years 1971, 1972 and 1973. The third volume is a mix of athletics and social history recording the journey of a 16 year old boy progressing from beginner to Scottish Youth 400 metres champion set within the culture of early 1970s Edinburgh.

Hoffmann represented Great Britain at the 1975 European Junior Championships winning the silver medal in the 400 metres. He was a member of the British Olympic 4 x 400 metres relay squad at Montreal, 1976. In 1978 he represented Scotland at the Commonwealth Games in Edmonton in the 800 metres and 4 x 400 metres relay. He had an unusually wide range winning the Scottish 50 metres indoor sprint as well as the British (AAA) 800 metres. Between 1973 and 1978 Hoffmann won 10 Scottish titles at Youth, Junior and Senior level; broke the Scottish Native 400 metres record on 3 occasions and won 7 AAAs medals at 200, 400 and 800 metres. He partnered Sebastian Coe and Steve Ovett as the UK's third representative at the 1978 European Athletics Championships Men's 800 metres in Prague. In 2016 he represented Scotland at the 4 Nations Home Fencing Veterans’ International at epee.

Hoffmann has kept diaries and journals for almost half a century and extracts feature daily on the blog The Edinburgh Samuel Pepys. He is currently working on an ambitious project, the 700k plus words A Capital Tale the story of an ordinary Edinburgh family over a quarter of a century between the years 1971 and 1996. It is based on extracts from the author’s diaries and journals and paints a picture of an earlier Edinburgh and the ordinary social and cultural life of one local family. He plans to release four volumes, one for each season of the year; the first two books, A Capital Tale Winter and A Capital Tale Spring have been published alongside a more concise volume The Edinburgh Samuel Pepys.

He is also the author of several social history books on 1960s Edinburgh including The Stair about growing up in the 1960s in the Edinburgh south suburb of Oxgangs.

Peter Hoffmann (born 1 July 1 1956) is an Edinburgh diarist; author and international sportsman; he also undertakes some occasional journalism and advisory consultancy work.

Born in Edinburgh, Peter Hoffmann was brought up in Oxgangs, Edinburgh and educated at Hunters Tryst Primary School and Boroughmuir High School. His mother attended the University of Edinburgh in 1954, and his father was a chief officer in the merchant navy who trained at the Edinburgh shipping company, Ben Line Agencies. In 1976 Hoffmann began studying for a degree in English and sports science and recreation management at Loughborough University but decided to leave shortly after starting the course. He instead graduated from Edinburgh Napier University with a BA in Business Studies (1981) and Dunfermline College of Physical Education with a postgraduate Diploma Recreation and Leisure Practice (1983).