John Lee was born and raised a few miles north of London in the pub-strewn city of St. Albans before heading to university (okay, polytechnic) in Leicester. Eager for overseas adventure, he next finagled his way into western Canada's University of Victoria to study politics before teaching English in Tokyo and then taking a life-changing trek on the Trans-Siberian Railway. By the time the train trundled into Moscow, he had decided to abandon all reason and become a full-time freelance travel writer. More than 10 years later, he's still doing it. An adopted Vancouverite for most of that time, John's travel writing has appeared in more than 125 major newspapers and magazines around the world and his trips have taken him from New Zealand's Fox Glacier to the pubs of Galway and the barbecue pits of Texas. Since 2004, he's also been a Lonely Planet guidebook author and has written 15 books for the company. For more on what he's up to, visit