About Liam

Growing up in York, my first twenty years were spent a world away from the wonderful chaos of China. In the late 1980s I embarked on a degree in Mandarin and Classical Chinese at Oxford, graduating from there to study ancient Chinese history amongst the cherry blossoms of Fudan University in Shanghai.

After spells with the top-end tour operator Voyages Jules Verne and with BBC Haymarket in London, at the age of 30 I swapped my briefcase for a rucksack and became a traveller and writer.

In 2006, just days before a three-month trip to investigate the Grand Canal of China, I married Rebecca, my supremely understanding and indulgent girlfriend of ten years. We live in the picturesque old town of Kenilworth, Warwickshire, in the heart of England.

Liam can be contacted at