Books

Through all the years of writing, to satisfy the urge to do just that, here are a few books – travel and cultural guides, coffee table books, and illustrated books – that have seen the light of day.

As an author, books are my babies. Each book seems momentous.

Borneo

In November 2026, the Borneo Bradt Travel Guide no.5 will appear after months updating my perennial guidebook. Borneo is a biodiversity wonder of the world, and I am so privileged to have visited many times over the past 15 years. I still have a way to go to match founder Hilary Bradt’s 12th edition of her Madagascar Guide.

See Rome or Die

Ok, it’s a slight variation on the original, see Naples and die. But I can’t imagine never having seen Rome, and given I wrote my parents a poem when I was five, claiming ‘My Home is in Rome’ (imagine their consternation and confusion!), it was the first place I wanted to visit on my first trip overseas. And I did. And the love affair continued from there.

It started, as I say, many years before, nurtured by teaching myself the language diligently, every night after work at the ABC, and cooking countless Italian dishes and hosting Italophile dinner parties. I even once took a job in an Italian radio station, just for the free cappuccino. While I was there, drinking coffee, I also presented the bilingual news program in English with a dishy Italian co-host.

So, it was a dream to be commissioned to research and write Chronicles of Old Rome, delving into Roman history at its nittiest and grittiest (and sometimes, truly gruesome). Tales of Rome’s beginnings, from Romulus and Remus to Ovid, Agrippina, and Nero. Plus, Puccini, Fellini, La Dolce Vita, and Roman Holiday …

Sydney Cafe Life

Sydney had a very seamy underbelly in the 70s and 80s – no doubt linked in part to the Italians who brought great espresso to the city. Espresso and crime. Sydney is my home away from home. It’s been my chosen city, from my hometown, Hobart, for many years.

An affair that started as a child, when my parents would send me to Sydney to stay with my newly-discovered half-aunt. (Around the same era that all those dark underworld crims were emerging …) Today, Sydney is more stunninga and sea-tastic than crime-ridden (let’s leave that to Melbourne).

Based between Sydney and Paris, Sydney is my great love, not least of all for its cafes, but also for the sea … and sailing. This book on Sydney cafes is like a museum piece now. It was shot with slide film to form a visual essay on Sydney’s neighborhood cafes … From Bondi to Bronte, Potts Point to Glebe … beachside, bayside, bohemian and ultra barista-fied cafes.

Some of the cafes are no longer there, others are. Many gems have joined them. For legends like Hernandez near Kings Cross, the book serves as a lasting tribute.

Viennese Attraction

Another all-time favourite city, another book – I wrote the Vienna chapter for Thames and Hudson’s stunning Style City Europe book. I also took the photos. Vienna is the most intriguing mix of old and new, tradition and modernity – palatially endowed with gorgeous buildings and rich layers of artistic meets architectural heritage.

Barcelona Bliss

Barcelona is another of my favourite cities in the world. In fact, I’ve been lucky to do guidebooks on most of the places – city and countryside – that I adore.

Barcelona, to qualify, is bliss in the low season. Like many places today, alas. And I realize I need to include myself among those most unwanted Spanish tourists … And, I feel we need to respect the needs of locals for less mass tourism abuse.

The Experience series by the Insight Guides was a fun concept to contribute to. Dipping into the best neighbourhoods and sites under an In the Mood For theme. So, quite different from your standard guide.

Eyewitness Guides France and Italy

As a contributing writer and photographer to several other guidebooks, I’ve also worked on the Eyewitness Books guides to France, Italy, and Australia, among others. My spreads for the “Back Roads” series Italy and France guides were gorgeous (if I may say so myself) … and it was incredible putting around the Continent in quest of spectacular images.

For the Italy guide, I wrote and photographed the chapters – on the Castelli Romani, Chianti, and the Veneto region. Click to see a sample spread.

Eyewitness Australia

  While we’re on DK Eyewitness Travel Guides, the first guidebook I ever worked on was their Australia guide, in 1998. I did the Tassie chapter. I have funny memories of writing that guidebook. Not long into my first year in France, sitting on a bed in a chambre de bonne – a maid’s room – on the “crossroads of Europe”, as I called Strasbourg.

Each night after university – where I already had my work cut out for me, understanding the contents of the day’s course in French. After translating recordings of the lessons into English, then back into French again, trying to understand, my head felt like it was going to explode.

I would then tackle the book commission. The next morning, I took a bath in the maid’s wash basin, before heading off to university again. But I digress …

Insight Guides Switzerland

In 2019, I was involved in a renaissance of the Switzerland Insight Guide, which hadn’t been updated for 15 years. The book I rewrote was a doorstop. Small yet relatively serene, it’s incredible how you can still get lost in less-visited areas of Switzerland that are gorgeous, green and cow and cheese heaven.

An alpine and rural haven, with landscapes concertinaed within its intricate mountain and valley folds, I love backcountry travelling in Switzerland, encountering its quirky regional traditions. One thing I don’t love is the cost of living! Recently, a friend posted on Facebook how a bottle of water at a train station in Basel cost him 13 euros. That’s ridiculous! Or perhaps, Swiss-diculous!