Michael Palin has written and starred in numerous TV programmes and films, from Monty Python and Ripping Yarns to The Missionary and American Friends.

He has also made several much-acclaimed travel documentaries, his journeys taking him to the North and South Poles, the Sahara Desert, the Himalayas, Eastern Europe and Brazil. His books include accounts of his journeys, novels (Hemingway’s Chair and The Truth) and several volumes of diaries.

From 2009 to 2012 he was president of the Royal Geographical Society, and in 2013 he was made a BAFTA fellow. He lives in London.

Jonathan Scott is a music writer and self confessed astronomy geek.

Formerly a contributing editor to Record Collector magazine, he has edited books about Prince, Cher and the San Francisco psych explosion, and written about Nirvana, the Pogues, the Venga Boys, Sir Patrick Moore and Sir Isaac Newton in a variety of magazines.

He received his first telescope aged eight, using it to track Halley's Comet in 1986. Having followed Voyager's planetary fly-bys throughout his childhood, he first got to write about the missions in 2004. If he'd been in charge of the Voyager Golden Record, aliens would assume humanity had three chords.

Hilary Bradt's career as an occupational therapist ended when potential employers noticed that the time taken off for travel exceeded the periods of employment. With her former husband George, she self-published her first guidebook in 1974 during an extended journey through South America. As well as running Bradt Travel Guides, Hilary worked for 25 years as a tour leader in Madagascar.

Her in-depth knowledge of the country has brought her lecture engagements at the Royal Geographical Society, the Smithsonian Institution and on board expedition cruise ships, as well as numerous commissions for travel articles. She now lives in semi-retirement in Devon and is delighted to have handed over the hard graft of researching new editions to Daniel.

Simon King is a meteorologist and currently presents the weather on BBC TV news, radio and online. He created, produced and co-presented the BBC podcast Under the Weather with Clare Nasir. Simon was previously an operational meteorologist for the Met Office and part of a specialist forecasting unit with the Royal Air Force.

Having trained as an RAF reserve officer, he was deployed with the military on operations to the Middle East where he provided crucial weather data and forecasts. He has a postgraduate and undergraduate degree in Meteorology from the University of Reading and is a self-confessed weather nut!