James Proctor has been with Rough Guides since 1995 and is the company’s original Nanook of the North. Although James mistakenly studied Swedish at university (actually signing up for Spanish but going to the wrong lecture room), he finally got the chance to indulge his love for the Nordic countries (and pickled herring) when he lived and worked in Stockholm as the BBC’s Scandinavia correspondent in the mid-90s, travelling widely across the entire Nordic region.

On return to the UK, James presented BBC Radio 5 Live’s daily European news programme, Euronews, which curiously always featured a generous number of Nordic news items. In addition to the Rough Guide to Sweden, James has also co-written the Rough Guide to Iceland, contributed to the Rough Guide to Scandinavia and is proud to be the author of the only English-language guides to the Faroe Islands and Lapland, both published by Bradt Travel Guides.

James now divides his time as a freelance travel writer between his native Yorkshire, the south of the France and his forest retreat in Sweden.