Bradley Mayhew

Bradley's degree in Chinese from Oxford University kickstarted 30 years of independent travel in the remoter corners of Asia and a career writing guidebooks. He co-wrote the Odyssey Guide to Uzbekistan, the first guidebook to the country, in 1995 and has since written over 50 guides for Lonely Planet, specialising in Central Asia, Tibet, Bhutan, Nepal and China, but also covering Mongolia, Jordan, Morocco, India and Sri Lanka.

In the course of his research trips he's been arrested in the Tajikistan Pamirs, forced to make a self-criticism in Tibet and spent way too much time eating mutton kebabs across inner Asia. Bradley has lectured on Central Asia to the Royal Geographical Society. He was filmed retracing the route of Marco Polo for a five-hour German TV documentary (Arte/SWR) in 2011, and then for the ten-part series Wanderlust (Arte/SWR), hiking ten of Europe's most beautiful long distance walking trails.

Instagram @bradley_mayhew.