Born in London of Welsh and Malay Chinese parents, Thammy Evans has travelled and lived abroad for over 20 years, especially in China and southeast Europe. Her first overseas trip was to Malaysia at the age of eight, and she has been dabbling in numerous foreign languages ever since. Amongst her many other travels, her most memorable are the Trans-Mongolian Railway from Tianjin to Moscow in 1991, mountaineering in Bolivia in the summer of 1999, and doing the field research for her second Bradt travel guide Great Wall of China in 2005. Despite many forays to far-off lands, she feels most at home in the southern climes of wider Europe and has a little Istrian stone house in Croatia. Resident now in London, she escapes to Istria at every opportunity with her husband and two-year-old daughter.

Give the lowdown on Thammy E.