Michael Harcourt

I will go that extra mile to achieve my goals.

Empty soundbite? Cliché? Well, how about 1700 miles? That's the distance I walked, from the Austrian Alps to the Atlantic coast of Spain on my most recent travel venture. Travel, seeing new places and meeting new people are the things that motivate me above all.

I have plenty of experience in the nitty gritty of public and private sectors - in the wonderful world of freight, as a bookseller and, most recently, a criminal investigator - but I have always maintained an extracurricular career as a freelance writer, having been a contributing author on a number of travel guides and provided many reviews and feature articles for magazines and newspapers.

My passions are art, film, literature, music and, of course, travel. Currently, I am trying to smarten myself up at the Open University, where I am studying towards a degree in English Language and Literature.