After a degree in French Literature at Oxford University and a brief career in publishing, Tim Burford took the opportunity presented by the changes in East-Central Europe after 1989 to move into travel writing. He began with hiking guides to Romania, Poland and Ukraine before taking on the Rough Guide to Romania, and then wrote hiking guides to Argentina and Chile before moving north to take on the Rough Guide to Alaska. He spends summers in the Alps leading hiking groups for Wilderness Travel. Tim lives in Cambridge, England, and is trying to reconcile his belief in the benefits of travel with the damaging effects of air travel.