Our Tour Experts

Sue Flood is a photographer, author and conservationist. Following a successful career as a BBC wildlife filmmaker where she worked on the award-winning series ‘The Blue Planet’, and Planet Earth, Sue decided to leave the BBC to concentrate on her photography.

Her work has been recognised with awards in the International Photography Awards, Travel Photographer of the Year, International Conservation Photographer of the Year, and International Garden Photographer of the Year.

Richard Dawkins is probably the best known evolutionary biologist in the world today and certainly the world’s best-known atheist who has debated the existence of God with many people, most notably Rowan Williams, the former Archbishop of Canterbury. He was the first Professor of the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University, a position that was created by Charles Simonyi, the software billionaire, especially for him.

William Dalrymple is a highly acclaimed author of a series of books, notably Xanadu, City of Djinns, The Age of Kali, White Mughals and The Anarchy. His most recent book is The Golden Road, which articulates the influence India has historically had on art, architecture, science and culture across the eastern world, ‘from the Hindu Kush to the Pacific’. William refers to this powerful yet benign influence as the ‘Indosphere’.

William is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, the Royal Geographical Society and of the Royal Asiatic Society. He is a founder and co-director of the Jaipur Literature Festival and recently hosted a wonderful trip for Steppes, cruising along the Hooghly river visiting sites of relevance to the East Indian Company. Be sure to catch up with William’s current podcast Empire with Anita Anand, covering significant historical dynasties and empires around the world.

Monty Halls is a writer, explorer, television presenter, public speaker and President of the Galapagos Conservation Trust. A former Royal Marines officer who worked for Nelson Mandela on the peace process in South Africa, he left the services in 1996 to pursue a career in leading expeditions.

Having achieved a First Class Honours degree in marine biology, over the next decade he circumnavigated the globe four times on various projects, leading multi-national teams in some of the most demanding environments on earth.