Travel Guidebooks
I specialise in writing travel guidebooks. The diverse locations I've covered range from Japan and South Africa to Iran and Russia. Most of my titles have been for Lonely Planet, but I've also worked for Bradt, Rough Guides, DK Eyewitness, Time Out and many other major publishers.
Slow Travel Kent
Explore England's most historic county
In May 2022 my new guidebook to Kent was published as part of Bradt’s award-winning series of Slow Travel guides to UK regions.
The diversity of Kent is striking, from awe-inspiring Canterbury Cathedral, part of a Unesco-listed World Heritage Site, to natural wonders such as Dungeness, Kent’s southernmost point, a vast shingle headland that teams with plant and bird life. Superb hiking trails, including the North Downs Way and the English Coastal Path, provide access to some of the most beautiful parts of the county if not the UK. Along the way discover ancient monuments like the Medway Megaliths, more recent curios such as Margate’s enigmatic Shell Grotto, and many of Kent’s horticultural treasures, including lesser-known gems like the Pines Gardens in St Margaret’s Bay and the remarkable grounds hidden behind Rochester’s Restoration House.
This in-depth guide covers all the most popular places as well as many of the lesser-known ones, dividing the county into five easy-to-follow chapters. Explore Dover Castle and spend time at its iconic White Cliffs, saunter through Vita Sackville-West’s gorgeous gardens at the National Trust’s Sissinghurst estate, and contemplate the delightful and thought-provoking public art of the revitalised seaside town of Folkestone.
Lonely Planet
My first assignment for Lonely Planet was in 1999 travelling throughout Kazakhstan to update that chapter of their Central Asia guide. I’ve since worked on over 100 other projects for the company including guidebooks to Greece, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Korea, Poland, Malaysia, Myanmar, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, the UK and the USA.
Among my favourite projects have been:
- co-creating the first (and only) edition of Istanbul to Kathmandu, during which time I spent three months travelling overland across Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, India and Nepal.
- hopping on and off trains through Russia, Mongolia and China to research and write the first to sixth editions of the Trans-Siberian Railway guide.
- Creating the first editions of Pocket Philadelphia (2018) and Pocket Warsaw (2019).
Other Lonely Planet books I’ve worked on include the Out to Eat restaurant review series for Sydney and London; walking guides to Britain and Australia; The Travel Book, The Asia Book, Code Green, Experimental Travel, the Blue List 2008, Cooks, Clowns & Cowboys, Best in Travel 2014 & 2017, Calm, Food Trails, Amazing Train Journeys, Travel Goals, Wellness Escapes, The Honeymoon Handbook and Street Art.
Rough Guides
I worked on my first guidebook in 1996 when I covered all of peninsular Malaysia for the Rough Guide to Malaysia, Singapore & Brunei. Off the back of my experience of living in Japan I was then commissioned to co-author the first editions of The Rough Guide to Japan and The Rough Guide to Tokyo; the Japan guide won the Travelex Guidebook of the Year in 2000.
I'm also the author of the Rough Guide to Anime and a contributing writer to the Rough Guide to Manga and Make the Most of Your Time on Earth.
Other Publishers
Among the other publishers I've worked with are DK Eyewitness, Insight Guides, JPM Guides, AA Publishing, Fodors, Thames & Hudson and Time Out (for whom I regularly contributed to their annual London Eating & Drinking guide).