My first article was published in the Independent in 1990 and, by the middle of the decade writing had become my day job, and it still is. I've written on all sorts of topics, from buying antiques abroad to windsurfing in London, but for the past 15 years I've specialised in travel, with pieces in many national newspapers and magazines.

My other love is history. I'd read it at university but had barely given it a thought since as a career option. However, I was lucky enough to have some inspiring encounters with editors, authors and manuscripts, which led to a book about one of the 18th-century’s most enjoyably scandalous figures. History and travel writing aren't such an odd combination; conveying the atmosphere of an island on the other side of the globe, for instance, is much the same as breathing life into long-dead people and events of hundreds of years ago.

My first job, however, wasn’t writing at all, but working in a City trading room, an experience I later drew on for a series of humorous columns in the Independent. Happily, I quickly came to my senses and launched myself into the world of journalism. A year off to meander round India and the Far East turned my pen in the direction of travel writing, and that was that.