How has the Guild been most helpful?
I have only just joined but went to the enjoyable dinner in December and am looking forward to the AGM so I can get to know more members.

What's your earliest memory of travel?
Getting lost aged three on the beach at West Wittering in West Sussex and being picked up by the police.

What's your most bizarre memory of travel?
Living for three months at the Shakespeare and Company bookstore in Paris.

Which is the place you haven't been to yet but would most like to visit?
Mars

Where would you never want to go again?
Beidaihe in winter.

If you could take a day trip back in time to any point in history, when and where would you visit?
Place: London. Date: 19 November 1994 (the first day of the UK National Lottery draw; or any roll-over draw will do).

What's the best travel advice you've ever been given?
As I walked out one Midsummer Morning, by Laurie Lee.

How did you get involved in travel writing/photography/broadcasting?
After getting a degree in Chinese from SOAS, I left for Hong Kong in 1996 then worked on my first Lonely Planet guide to China the following year.

Favourite museum or gallery?
It’s got to be the British Museum, followed by the Shanghai Museum.

Most memorable hotel?
The Peninsula, Hong Kong.

Everyone gets it wrong sometimes, so what's the biggest travel blunder you've ever made?
Crossing over into Burma from China, without a visa.....

Which travel destination has taken you most by surprise and why?
Mahayana Hall, Puning Temple, Chengde, Hebei province, China. The vast wooden statue of Guanyin within is quite mind-blowing.

If you had one tip to share with other travel writers what would it be?
Always try to find out what’s around the next corner.

A favourite travel book to pass the journey?
Foreign Devils on the Silk Road by Peter Hopkirk. Not a travel book per se, but a marvelous read.