Bradt Greece ― The Peloponnese: With Athens, Delphi and Kythira

Andrew Bostock first travelled to the Peloponnese as a 15-year-old backpacker and spent his first night sleeping under a bush in the car park, having watched a performance of Oedipus at Colunus at the great theatre of Epidavros. He kept coming back with various companions before moving there with his pregnant partner in 2005 – their daughter was born in Kalamata. Andrew spent the next five years guiding tours around the area, exploring its lesser-known bits and writing about it for magazines and newspapers. The first edition of his Bradt guide was published in 2010. The family return to Greece most years and dream about the olive groves, mountains and the sea when they are not there.

This edition has been updated by Philip Briggs, one of the world's most experienced and prolific guidebook writers. He has been associated with Bradt since 1991, since when has written or updated guides to more than 20 other destinations, many of them pioneering the way to places that were then practically uncharted by the travel publishing industry. Researching this new edition of Greece: the Peloponnese fulfilled a longstanding dream of exploring the historical sites of Greece and the likes of Delphi, Olympus and Mystra didn't disappoint, especially as he was fortunate enough to visit in spring when wildflowers were abundant (and other tourists rather less so). Philip still spends at least four months on the road every year, usually accompanied by his wife, the travel photographer Ariadne Van Zandbergen, and spends the rest of the time battering away at a keyboard in the sleepy South African coastal village of Wilderness.