Robert Willoughby

Robert Willoughby was born in London where he is based as a freelance journalist and author. Realising conventional university would be the death of him, he went to work selling ice-cream in Chicago for a summer and in 1995 was smitten with the absolute thrill and education of living and working abroad – something he also thinks he inherited from his father. He qualified as a TEFL teacher and started an Open University degree, while working in Moscow and Hanoi and travelling across southeast Asia before moving to Beijing, where he moved into journalism. In late 2001 he crossed the final frontier into North Korea, then returned to London and bought a place in Deptford. As well as the truly pioneering Bradt Guide to North Korea, he has written about conspiracy theories and global surveillance, as well as a novel.