I am a freelance writer and guide book author specialising in Israel, Sichuan, Beijing, Mediterranean Europe and Central America, all places in which I have spent a considerable amount of time living. I currently live on the tiny island of Utila in Honduras' Bay Islands, which lives up to the ideal of Caribbean perfection, and is a perfect starting block for exploring and writing about Central America and Mexico. It also allows me to indulge in my other passion in life; scuba diving. I am a Master Scuba Diver Trainer and teach specialties such as fish identification and whale shark awareness, wildlife conservation and animal welfare a keen interest and writing topic. Indeed, my first published article was on the plight of Gaza's street cats during the disengagement of Jewish settlers, and I wrote a monthly article for the English-language Israeli publication 'Essence of Life' on wildife topics.

Since those days I have expanded my writing themes to include predominantly guide books on destinations such as Beijing, Sichuan, the Xinghai-Tibet Railway and, most recently Bradt Israel, of which edition 2 is currently in the works. Bradt Israel has also been translated into Czech, Polish and Italian, and currently on its way to being released in Spanish.

Magazine articles of recent have tended to focus on Israel, a country that provides an bottomless pit of fascinating topics, from desert eco-kibbutz to Israel's Biblical animals to Tel Aviv's Bauhaus atchitecture to celebrating Gay Pride in the Holy Land.

Budget and independent travel are my mode of choice, and while I profess to being an almost obsessive researcher, I love the unexpected, adventurous and downright bizarre experiences independent travel offers. From getting stuck on a train for three days across Turkey, Bulgaria, Serbia and Croatia to riding an excritiatingly painful camel hours into the Moroccan Sahara Desert to snorkelling with whale sharks, I have an insatiable, and (so long as it doesn't involved bungee jumping or crawling through caves) fearless attitude towards travel.

Through meticulous and passionate research, I also manage to find ways to get the most for your money, and love writing about budget travel. While it is considerably easier to budget in countries where the pound is going to go a lot further, articles such as 'Canoeing in Sweden' (Transitions Abroad) demonstrate how to travel to one of the World's most expensive countries on very little money. I am planning a trip to Iceland in October where I shall be pulling in the proverbial purse strings to see exactly what you can get for your money. I shall also be visiting Belize and Mexico's Yucatan Penninsula in April, as well as Israel later in the year.