About Tony

◄ At the Yungang Caves in China in October 2013, the sign means ‘end of the trail, don’t go any further,’ but it translates very nicely.

When Maureen and I arrived in Sydney the day after Christmas 1972, after a six month Asia overland trip from Europe, we had 27 cents left between us. In late 1973 we started Lonely Planet Publications to publish Across Asia on the Cheap, the story of our trip from London to Australia. We spent the following year travelling around South-East Asia and in early 1975 published our second book, South-East Asia on a Shoestring.

From those early guidebooks Lonely Planet Publications grew to become the world’s largest independent guidebook publisher with offices in London and Oakland as well as the head office in Melbourne.

 

In 2011 we completed the sale of Lonely Planet – it’s been sold twice more since – and although I no longer have any formal role with Lonely Planet I still seem to work with them fairly regularly! I also keep busy with Planet Wheeler, the foundation Maureen and I set up after we left Lonely Planet. We also have a publishing interest with Text Publishing in Australia.

Then there’s the Wheeler Institute at London Business School which concentrates on entrepreneuralism and business in the developing world. LBS was my second degree, my first was in engineering at Warwick University in England.  Recently Warwick has launched the Wheeler History of Travel Writing Programme, which will be looking at history from the perspective of travel guides and travel books. Plus there’s the Wheeler Centre for Books, Writing & Ideas in Melbourne, Australia with regular public events.

Despite these distractions I also manage to fit in a fair amount of travel, which features on this website.  Here’s a more recent photograph, I’m on the Three Capes Track on the Australian island state of Tasmania in early 2024. ►