Philip Briggs (www.philipbriggs.com) is one of the world's most experienced and knowledgeable guidebook writers, having been researching and writing guides for Bradt and other well-known publishers for 30 years. In 1991, he wrote the Bradt Guide to South Africa, the first such guidebook to be published internationally after the release of Nelson Mandela. Over the rest of the 1990s, Philip wrote a series of pioneering Bradt travel guides to African destinations (Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia, Malawi, Mozambique, Ghana, Rwanda) that were then - and in some cases still are - otherwise practically uncharted by the travel publishing industry. More recently, he authored the first dedicated English-language guidebook to Somaliland, as well as a new guide to The Gambia, both published by Bradt. Turning his attention now to both South America and Asia, he has written Bradt guides to Suriname and Sri Lanka. Philip spends at least four months on the road every year.