I have been working as a writer of non-fiction books for the last 20 years. I mainly write books that combine travel with current affairs. My latest book is Alone in Japan: A Journey to the Future. It is a travel/current affairs book, in which I rove around Japan, exploring its demographic woes – an ageing society and a chronically low birth rate – and try to anticipate how Japan is going to change over the next thirty years. It is due to be published by Allen Lane/ Penguin at the end of February 2026. 

My first book, ‘The Candy Machine: How Cocaine Took Over the World’, was published by Penguin in 2009. It was based on over 60 interviews with people involved in all aspects of the cocaine business, including coca growers, traffickers, narcotics police, judges, casual users and addicts. 

My second book, ‘Short Walks from Bogota: Journeys in the New Colombia’, was published by Allen Lane/Penguin in 2012. It was a timely and multi-faceted exploration of a remarkable yet little-known country emerging from decades of internal strife.

My third book, ‘The Island that Disappeared: Old Providence and the Making of the Western World’, was published by Explore Books in 2017. It is a potted history of the Caribbean, and Britain’s impact on it, as seen from Old Providence, a tiny, isolated island that was one of England’s earliest colonies. 

Prior to becoming a writer, I worked as Campaigns Director for the TUC’s Justice for Colombia campaign, which organizes for human rights in Colombia. Between 1995 and 2005, I worked in documentary production, starting as a researcher and rising to become a producer and director.