HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Geoff Crowther (15 March 1944 – 13 April 2021) was a British travel writer who wrote for
BIT The bit is the most basic unit of information in computing and digital communications. The name is a portmanteau of binary digit. The bit represents a logical state with one of two possible values. These values are most commonly represented ...
and
Lonely Planet Lonely Planet is a travel guide book publisher. Founded in Australia in 1973, the company has printed over 150 million books. History Early years Lonely Planet was founded by married couple Maureen and Tony Wheeler. In 1972, they embark ...
.


Life


Early life

Crowther was born on 15 March 1944 in
Halifax, West Yorkshire Halifax () is a minster and market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale in West Yorkshire, England. It is the commercial, cultural and administrative centre of the borough, and the headquarters of Calderdale Council. In the 15th cen ...
. His parents worked in a cotton mill. He attended
Calder High School The Calder High School is a coeducational comprehensive school. It specialises in technology, with technology rooms. It is located in the village of Mytholmroyd, in the metropolitan district of Calderdale, in northern England. Admissions As of ...
, and began hitchhiking around Europe while still a teenager. At the
University of Liverpool , mottoeng = These days of peace foster learning , established = 1881 – University College Liverpool1884 – affiliated to the federal Victoria Universityhttp://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukla/2004/4 University of Manchester Act 200 ...
, he studied
biochemistry Biochemistry or biological chemistry is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology and ...
, and considered staying on to undertake a doctorate, but in the end his desire to travel proved too great.


BIT and Lonely Planet

In 1972, he joined the alternative information service
BIT The bit is the most basic unit of information in computing and digital communications. The name is a portmanteau of binary digit. The bit represents a logical state with one of two possible values. These values are most commonly represented ...
, where he oversaw the production of ''Overland to India and Australia''. The guide impressed Tony and
Maureen Maureen is a female given name. In Gaelic, it is Máirín, a pet form of '' Máire'' (the Irish cognate of Mary), which is derived from the Hebrew Miriam. The name has sometimes been regarded as corresponding to the male given name Maurice. Some ...
Wheeler, and in 1976 they invited him to join
Lonely Planet Lonely Planet is a travel guide book publisher. Founded in Australia in 1973, the company has printed over 150 million books. History Early years Lonely Planet was founded by married couple Maureen and Tony Wheeler. In 1972, they embark ...
.


Personal life

He met his first wife, Hyung Poon, whilst working on a guidebook in South Korea. They married in Seoul in 1982, and their son, Ashley, was born in 1989. After their marriage ended in 2000, Crowther had a brief second marriage to a woman he met in Kenya, but this also ended in divorce.


Final years

In 2005, he sustained a head injury in an accident and moved to a residential care facility. He died in South East Queensland on 13 April 2021, at the age of seventy-seven, as a result of complications arising from dementia.


Notable guidebooks

*''Africa on the Cheap'' (1977) *''South America on a Shoestring'' (1980) *''India: A Travel Survival Kit'' (1981) *''Malaysia, Singapore & Brunei: A Travel Survival Kit'' (1982) *''Korea & Taiwan: A Travel Survival Kit'' (1982) *''Africa on a Shoestring'' (1983) *''East Africa: A Travel Survival Kit'' (1987) *''Morocco, Algeria & Tunisia: A Travel Survival Kit'' (1989) *''Kenya: A Travel Survival Kit'' (1991)


References


External links


Interview
with Ashley Crowther in 2021, in which he talks about his father. {{DEFAULTSORT:Crowther, Geoff 1944 births 2021 deaths 20th-century travel writers 21st-century travel writers Alumni of the University of Liverpool British travel writers People from West Yorkshire