Who we are

We’re Neil and Helen Matthews and, as travel writers, we have written two guidebooks, a travelogue and various articles:-

• Slow Travel: The Chilterns & The Thames Valley showcases our home region, the Chilterns, as well as the neighbouring Thames Valley and the Vale of Aylesbury.
• Heritage Weekends: 52 breaks exploring Britain’s past describes wonderful examples of natural, architectural, industrial or cultural heritage.
• Neil’s travelogue Journeys from Wimbledon Common explores the places from which the Wombles got their names.
• Our travel writing has appeared in Wanderlust, Best of Britain, Optima and other magazines.

We have also completed PhDs in History and we’ve written books based on our PhD research:-

• Neil’s Victorians and Edwardians abroad: the beginning of the modern holiday profiles the Polytechnic Touring Association, a leading 19th and 20th century British travel agency.
• Helen’s book The Legitimacy of Bastards: the place of illegitimate children in later medieval England considers the illegitimate children of English nobility and gentry, the individuals who had those children, the ways in which they provided for them and attitudes towards the parents and the children.

About our publishers

Bradt Guides, the publisher of our guidebooks, is the world’s largest independently owned guidebook publisher, with over 200 titles in print. The range includes full-country travel guides, regional guides, wildlife guides, Slow Travel guides to special areas of Britain and travel literature. Bradt has a reputation as a pioneer in tackling unusual destinations; over two-thirds of its guides have no direct competition from other publishers. Bradt guides are renowned for championing sustainable travel and for the high quality of their writing.