John Noble : Coordinating Author, Telangana & Andhra Pradesh. John, from England, has written about six different Indian states and 20-odd other countries for Lonely Planet. He first experienced South India in the 1980s when Chennai's Triplicane High Rd was clogged with bullock carts, and families milked their buffaloes beside it. Autorickshaws have replaced bullock carts now, but he loves returning to South India because, in a nutshell, there's never a dull moment there ! As a long-time fan of William Dalrymple's White Mughals, John's biggest thrill of this trip was getting the chance to explore fascinating Hyderabad in depth.
He wrote the Plan Your Trip and Understand sections and the Directory and Transport chapters. Abigail Blasi : Abigail fell in love with India on her first visit in 1994. and since then she's explored and written on India from north to south and back again. She's covered plenty of other places for Lonely Planet too, from Mauritania and Mali to Rome and Lisbon. Abigail wrote the Booking Trains, Scams, Women & Solo Travellers and Health chapters.
Paul Harding : Goa, Kerala. Paul first landed in India in the mid-90s and has returned regularly over the years, usually writing about it. He still has a soft spot for the south, where the pace of lite is slower, the food tastier and the beer (usually) solder. For this edition he was fortunate enough to return to Goa and Kerala where he researched beaches and backwaters, homestays and bamboo huts, seafood curries and chicken xacutis.
Trent Holden : Karnataka & Bengaluru, Andaman Islands. On his third time co-authoring the India book, Trent was assigned with the not-so-shabby task of testing cut Bengaluru's microbreweries, searching for tigers in Bandipur NP and checking out Hampi's ruins before hitting the beaches in Gokarna. He then returned to the Andaman Islands for more sun, surf and Sand. A freelance travel writer based ire London, Trent also covers destinations such as Nepal, Zimbabwe and Japan.
In between travels he writes about food and music.
