A bit of a late starter, British-born Paul Whitfield didn’t really get into travel mode until his mid-twenties when he left his adopted home in New Zealand for the big wide world. He used assorted guides throughout North, Central and South America but never got a chance to use Rough Guides. Back in the unenlightened mid-1980s there were no Rough Guides to these parts.

After landing a job as a chemical engineer in a biscuit factory in Liverpool he decided to spend his last two weeks of freedom on quick trip to Morocco. He bought the first edition of the Rough Guide to Morocco (no photos, hand-drawn maps) and immediately fell in love with the style and approach. He’s been an avid Rough Guide fan ever since

On subsequent travels he bought Rough Guides whenever there was one available. And when there wasn’t one he'd bore travelling companions to tears with his grumbles about the quality of whatever alternate guide he had purchased.

He occasionally wrote letters to Rough Guides about hotels that had closed down or fabulous restaurants he had discovered. Pretty soon he found that he enjoyed doing this minor research as much as the travelling. Instead of just walking into some European cathedral and gazing around he started wondering what he would say about it. Increasingly lengthy letters to Rough Guides eventually produced a meeting with the bosses. As luck would have it, the Scandinavia Rough Guide authors needed assistance with their next update. They didn’t have to ask twice.

A month-long stint in Denmark and Sweden set the ball rolling and pretty soon Paul was working on new guides to England and Wales and an update to California. At the time there was no Rough Guide to New Zealand and as Paul had spent most of his formative years there (in Auckland, Hastings and Christchurch) he felt well placed to write one. Most of the next couple of years were spent researching and writing in New Zealand.

Since then he has written guides to Alaska and Yosemite National Park, continued his involvement with his other book and taken on a series of photo commissions for Rough Guides. During occasional gaps in Rough Guide commitments he writes articles for various magazines.

After about ten years living in Britain (Liverpool and Manchester) Paul returned to New Zealand and now lives in Auckland with his partner Irene and cat Pharaoh. When off duty, Paul still enjoys travelling, but usually tries to combine it with some sort of outdoor activity – trekking in Chile and Argentina, rock climbing in California, sea kayaking in Alaska, whitewater paddling and mountaineering in New Zealand and whatever other fun stuff he can think of.