Simon Richmond

---

For over 30 years I've researched and written high quality guidebooks (over 150 of them) and travel-related content for print and online media. My travel writing is supported and enhanced by my photographs and watercolour sketches. I'm also the editor of the print mag, The Folkestone Foghorn.

My first experience of living overseas was when I won a scholarship to study for a year at the University of California, Santa Barbara. I travelled twice across the US by Greyhound bus. From 1991 to 1994 I lived in Tokyo, where I worked as an editor and writer for Nikkei News Bureau and Tokyo Journal. I studied Japanese and travelled Japan and Asia, scribbling notes and gaining the wider experiences that saw me transition to becoming a travel writer. 

Between 1994 and 1995 I lived for a year in Sydney. I fell in love with Australia and immigrated there in 1998, staying until 2005. I authored the StyleCity Sydney guide and my features have been published in the Sydney Morning Herald, Australian, Australian Financial Review Magazine, Belle and Qantas' inflight magazine.

In the UK, my work has appeared in many publications including the Guardian, Independent, Times, Sunday Times and the Daily Telegraph. My first guidebook gig was with Rough Guides in 1996, updating the Rough Guide to Malaysia, Singapore & Brunei. Two years later I co-authored the first edition of the Rough Guide to Japan, which won the guidebook of the year in the Travelex Awards of 2000, and the Rough Guide to Tokyo.

I've worked as an author for Lonely Planet since 1999. Among the many countries I've covered for guidebook and travel reference projects for the publisher are Australia, China, Greece, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Mongolia, Myanmar (Burma), Poland, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the UK and the USA. I'm a regular contributor of features to Lonely Planet's website.

For the last decade I've kept sketchbooks of my travels and created art, specialising in watercolours. In Folkestone, UK, where I am currently based, I organise the local Urban Sketchers group. 

After studying Economics & Politics at the University of York (1983-1986), I began my journalism career working for the Consumers' Association in London as a researcher and writer for their monthly magazine Which? and their book publications. Topics I covered included personal finance, food, broadcasting regulation and policy, utilities and disaster planning.