Andrew Eames is a writer and journalist based in London. With one parent from the Hebrides, and the other from the Channel Islands, he was born with his hand luggage packed. He now contributes to many national newspapers, and has a particular fondness for eastern and German-speaking Europe – he even runs a website about Germany – as well as southeast Asia, which is where he first worked as a journalist back in the 1980s. He has also written five books, the most recent being The 8.55 to Baghdad and Blue River Black Sea, which were both named "Book of the Week on BBC Radio Four." When he is not on the road he is usually to be found on the river Thames, where he coaches rowing to anyone who’ll listen