Once While Travelling

Book excerpt: Founders of the phenomenally successful publishing company Lonely Planet, Tony and Maureen Wheeler have produced travel guides to just about every country across the globe. Lonely Planet Publications was born in 1973 when the Wheelers self-published a quirky travel guide, Across Asia on the Cheap. This was quickly followed by what soon became the backpackers' bible, South-East Asia on a Shoestring . Going boldly where no other travel publisher had ventured, their budget-conscious travellers guide provided knowledge long before the advent of mass tourism. Once While Travelling: The Lonely Planet Story is a unique mix of autobiography, corporate history and travel book. It traces Tony and Maureen Wheeler's personal story as well as the often bumpy evolution of their business into the world's largest independent travel publishing company. Above all, their memoir reveals the spirit of adventure that has made them, according to the New York Daily News, 'the specialists in guiding weird folks to weird places.'