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About Stuart Butler

I'm available for writing, guidebook, photographic and editorial commissions.
Please contact me via e-mail, Facebook or Twitter

I'm a writer, photographer and Lonely Planet author. I've worked, travelled, written about and photographed numerous countries. The majority of my working life though is spent split between fine dining in southwest Europe (mainly France and Spain) and exploring remote and little visited regions of Africa and South Asia.

Much of my written work concentrates on environmental and social issues whilst my photographic work is a mixture of reportage and portrait work. My clients include:

  • BBC Worldwide
  • Independent newspaper, Telegraph newspaper, The Nation, Washington Post, Times of India
  • Geographical, NACLA, VSD
  • Singapore Airlines, Monarch Airways, Korean Airlines
  • Wild Travel, Travel Africa and Action Asia

I've written over thirty Lonely Planet guides including books to the following:

  • Europe: Spain, France and Norway
  • Africa: Kenya, Ethiopia, Sudan, South Sudan, DR Congo, Republic of Congo, Chad and Cape Verde
  • Middle East: Yemen, Iraq and Turkey
  • South Asia: India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh
  • South-East Asia: Burma and Indonesia
  • North America: Mexico

For Bradt Travel Guides I've written guides to Benin in West Africa and I'm currently writing a guide to the Basque Country and Navarra.

I am also a surf writer and explorer. My expeditions in search of new or little known surf spots have taken me from the coastal deserts of Pakistan and Yemen to the rain soaked jungles of Colombia and the Arctic tundra in winter. I've surfed with pygmies in Central Africa and reported on womens surf contests in Bangladesh. The stories and photographs of these trips appear frequently in the international surf media including Surfers Path, Tracks, Carve, Surf Session, Japanese Surfing World and many others. I've written the Oceansurf Guide: Portugal and Big Blue Surf Guide: Spain and is a frequent contributor to the Stormrider Guides.

Away from writing and photography I have appeared in television programes produced by France 3 and France 0. Originally from southwest England, I am now based with my wife and children on the beautiful beaches of southwest France.