Biographical note

Hilary Bradt co-founded Bradt Travel Guides in 1974, but now lives in semi-retirement in Seaton, East Devon. After nearly 50 years of writing guidebooks to Africa and South America, she has embraced her chosen home to the extent of insisting that such a large, varied and beautiful county deserved three Slow Travel guides, not just one. A keen walker, she has covered many miles of the South West Coast Path and inland footpaths, as well as enjoying Dartmoor on someone else's legs - those of a horse. Most Saturdays see her taking part in one of Devon's parkruns (5k, but she's appropriately slow), and during the summer a swim in the sea, just a few minutes away, is always a pleasure. She is a productive member of the South West Sculptors' Association and lectures regularly on travel-related topics at libraries and literary festivals, both in Devon and further afield. After many decades living in various other parts of Britain, the late Janice Booth settled in Devon ('within sound of the sea') in 2001, and enjoyed exploring her adopted home county on local buses until her death in February 2023. As a wartime toddler she lived briefly in Colyton (East Devon), where her mother took her 'to the seaside' at Seaton via a branch of the old Southern Railway that ran where the Seaton Tramway now rattles to and fro. On family holidays she tasted her first clotted cream in Sidmouth aged eight, rode on the Burgh Island tractor aged ten, and rock-hopped along the shore near Wembury in her early teens. She was fascinated by Devon folklore, co-wrote (with Hilary) Bradt's Slow Guide to East Devon & the Jurassic Coast, and - further afield - was co-author of Bradt's Rwanda. Alistair and Gill Campbell (travelblog.org/Bloggers/Postcards) have lived in the West Country for more than 16 years. During that time they have walked extensively in the area, often leading walks for local residents, tourists and foreign tour groups. They have walked the entire South West Coast Path, the Two Moors Way, the Macmillan Way West and the Tarka Trail. They are both volunteers for the National Trust and for Exmoor National Park, leading a team who restore ancient stone walls and aiming to ensure that visitors get the most out of their experiences in the South West. They have written a very successful walks book for the local tourist association, co-authored (with Hilary Bradt) Bradt's North & Mid Devon (Slow Travel) and contributed to other Bradt guides for the South West.