Tim Youngs is Professor of English and Travel Studies at Nottingham Trent University, where he is also director of the Centre for Travel Writing Studies. He has written or edited several books on travel writing, including The Cambridge Companion to Travel Writing (CUP, 2002), and is editor of the journal Studies in Travel Writing.

Travel writing goes back thousands of years and is found in many cultures. Tim Youngs examines its various forms, including diaries, letters, adventure narratives, and blogs, and outlines their uses. He shows how in describing places and their journeys to them, travel writers also reveal something of their own values and preoccupations.