Simon Gaul, a businessman, writer and peripatetic traveller, has written numerous travel books, as well as the well-loved children's book Pushkin the Polar Bear. He has sailed nearly every ocean, driven from London to Beijing in 1990 before the USSR collapsed, and reported on that 55-day expedition for the Sunday Correspondent and Capital Radio. He has also been a freelance journalist for titles such as the Daily Telegraph and the Independent. Simon previously lived in London, where he owned The Travel Bookshop (of cinematic fame) in Notting Hill. Now, when not on the road, he calls the Bernese Oberland home.