Rough Guides

Bio

In the summer of 1981, Mark Ellingham, just graduated from Bristol University, was travelling around Greece and couldn't find a guidebook that remotely met his needs. It was here that he met Martin Dunford, who was in Greece teaching English at the time. On their return to the UK, in a bid to avoid getting ‘real jobs', Mark, Martin and a small group of writers set about creating their own guidebook series; a series that aimed to combine a journalistic approach to description with a practical approach to travellers' needs. Published in 1982, the first Rough Guide – to Greece – was a student scheme that became a publishing phenomenon. The immediate success of the book spawned a series that rapidly covered dozens of destinations, and acquired a broad readership that relished Rough Guides' wit and inquisitiveness as much as their enthusiastic, critical approach. These days, Rough Guides is a leading publisher of travel and reference information, respected for their accurate, up-to-date content and informed contemporary writing.