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He wrote with Paul Muratoff ([[Pavel Muratov]]) two volumes on the Russian campaign for [[Penguin Books]]. [[John Erickson (historian)|John Erickson]] wrote that they (particularly the second volume) are examples of skilful exploitation of contemporary sources, and even today retain considerable value, including the elucidation of terrain factors.<ref>{{cite book |last= Erickson |first= John |title= The Road to Berlin: Stalin’s War with Germany: Volume Two |accessdate= |edition= 2 |origyear= 1983 |year= 1999 |publisher= Yale University Press |location= New Haven |isbn= 0-300-07813-7 |oclc= |page= |pages= 789, 836 }}</ref>
Allen was an officer with [[His Majesty's Diplomatic Service]] from 1943—notably information counsellor at [[Ankara]] between 1947 and 1949—until he stepped down and returned to his native [[Ulster]] in 1949. There, while living near [[Killyleagh]], [[County Down]], he divided his working time between running the family business (''David Allen's'', a major bill-posting company) and writing the two major books which he completed during the 1950s: ''Caucasian Battlefields'' (1953, with [[Pavel Muratov]]), and ''David Allens'' (1957, an account of the business and a collective biography of the Allen family). His last book, ''Russian Embassies to the Georgian Kings (1589-1605)'', written with the help of the translator Anthony Mango, was published in two volumes by the [[Hakluyt Society]] in 1970. He spent his last years living at Whitechurch House, near [[Cappagh, County Waterford|Cappagh]] in [[County Waterford]], in the south-east of [[Ireland]].
After his death in [[Dublin]] in 1973, his extensive library of books on Georgia and the Caucasus was estimated at £30,000 (worth between £280,000 and £530,000 in 2014).<ref name="odnb" /><ref>[http://www.measuringworth.com/ "Measuring Worth" website]</ref> This library is now part of the [[Indiana University]]'s [[Lilly Library]], which describes it as being 'rich in travel narratives, chronicles and works in linguistics, and [containing] a number of books and some manuscripts in the Georgian language'.<ref>[http://www.indiana.edu/~liblilly/collections/overview/history_europe.shtml The Lilly Library: Guide to the Collections]</ref>
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