Tom Chesshyre was born in London in 1971. He has a degree in politics from Bristol University, where he was news editor of the university paper, Epigram. He completed a newspaper journalism diploma at City University, after which he had short stints at the Cambridge Evening News, Sporting Life and Sky Sports. He freelanced for The Daily Telegraph and The Independent before joining the travel desk of The Times in 1997, where he still works. He has helped with the research on two non-fiction books: W. G. by Robert Low, a biography of W. G. Grace, and Carlos: Portrait of a Terrorist by Colin Smith, a biography of ‘Carlos the Jackal’. He is the author of three previous travel books: How Low Can You Go? Round Europe for 1p Each-Way (Plus Tax), published in 2007; To Hull and Back: On Holiday in Unsung Britain, published in 2010; and Tales from the Fast Trains: Europe at 186mph, published in 2011 and shortlisted in the 2012 British Travel Press Awards. His travel writing has taken him to almost a hundred countries. He lives in southwest London.