Hilary Bradt co-founded Bradt Travel Guides in 1974, but now lives in semi-retirement in Seaton, East Devon. After 40 years of writing guidebooks to Africa and South America, she has embraced her chosen home to the extent of insisting that such a large, varied and beautiful county deserved four Slow guides, not just one. Her first visit to the region was as a child on a pony-trekking holiday on Exmoor - a never to be forgotten experience. A keen walker, she has covered many miles of the South West Coast Path and inland footpaths, and most Saturdays see her taking part in one of Devon's Parkruns (5k, but she's appropriately slow). She is a productive member of the South West Sculptors' Association and lectures regularly on travel-related topics at libraries and literary festivals, both in Devon and further afield. In 2008 she was awarded an MBE for services to the tourist industry and to charity and in 2009 she received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the British Guild of Travel Writers.