Award-winning travel writer Annabelle Thorpe has spent two-and-a-half decades crisscrossing the world in search of stories. She's driven through deserts and crossed continents by train, stayed in five-star palaces and basic B&Bs, and talked to hotel magnates and campsite owners, concierges and redcoats, campaigners and museum curators, and everyone in between.

Named one of the top 50 travel writers in the UK by Press Gazette, she has worked on The Times and The Observer travel desks and held the role of Deputy Travel Editor at the Express. Based in Sussex, UK, she is the author of four novels as well as two guidebooks: Great British Weekends and Britain's Best Seaside Escapes.