Glasgow Handbook

Alan Murphy first tried his stand-up comedy act on Glasgow's terminally-unimpressed audiences, but despite some near-death experiences and the realisation that he should not give up the day job, he came to fall in love with this most down-to-earth and honest of cities. Following a spell in journalism, Alan swapped shorthand notebook for rucksack and left for the much warmer jungles of South America to spend time travelling. However, it was the writing bug that bit and he ended up working as a travel editor on a Bolivian newspaper. Since returning to Scotland, Alan has written Footprint guides to Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela and, more recently, his native country. Rebecca Ford studied Geography at St Andrews University. She then worked in advertising, before becoming a full time travel writer. She specialises in Britain and Italy, and her work has appeared in publications such as the Daily Telegraph, the Evening Standard and Scotland on Sunday.