Artwork by Jeremy Shaw

Rory MacLean is an author, broadcaster, blogger and Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. His nine books, including UK best-sellers ‘Stalin’s Nose’, ‘Under the Dragon’ and ‘Magic Bus’, have challenged and invigorated travel writing, and – according to the late John Fowles – are among works that ‘marvellously explain why literature still lives’. Born in Canada and resident for many years in Britain, he now lives in Berlin. www.rorymaclean.com