{{Short description|British travel writer (1944–2021)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox person | name = Geoff Crowther | image = Geoff Crowther (1944–2021).png | birth_date = {{birth date|1944|03|15|df=y}} | birth_place = West Yorkshire, England{{efn|name=fn1|''The Times'' states that Crowther was born in Todmorden, but the ''Financial Times'' states that he was born in Halifax.{{r|Times|FT}}}} | death_date = {{death date and age|2021|04|13|1944|03|15|df=y}} | death_place = South East Queensland, Australia | alma_mater = University of Liverpool | occupation = Travel writer | organization = BIT, Lonely Planet | spouse = {{marriage|Hyung Poon|1982|end=div.}}{{efn|name=fn2|''The Times'' states that the marriage was dissolved in 1997, but the ''Financial Times'' states that the marriage ended in 2000.{{r|Times|FT}}}} | children = 1 }} '''Geoff Crowther''' (15 March 1944 – 13 April 2021) was a British travel writer who wrote for BIT and Lonely Planet.
==Life== ===Early life=== Crowther was born in West Yorkshire{{efn|name=fn1}} on 15 March 1944. His parents worked in a cotton mill.{{r|Times|NYT}}
He attended Calder High School, and began hitchhiking around Europe while still a teenager. At the University of Liverpool, he studied biochemistry, and considered staying on to undertake a doctorate, but in the end his desire to travel proved too great.{{r|Times|FT|NYT}}
===BIT and Lonely Planet=== In 1972, he joined the alternative information service BIT, where he oversaw the production of ''Overland to India and Australia''. The guide impressed Tony and Maureen Wheeler, and in 1976 they invited him to join Lonely Planet.{{r|FT|Independent|R4}}
===Personal life=== He met his first wife, Hyung Poon, whilst working on a guidebook in South Korea. They married in Seoul in 1982, and their son, Ashley, was born in 1989. After their marriage ended,{{efn|name=fn2}} Crowther had a brief second marriage to a woman he met in Kenya, but this also ended in divorce.{{r|Times|FT}}
===Final years=== In 2005, he sustained a head injury in an accident and moved to a residential care facility.{{r|FT}} He died in South East Queensland on 13 April 2021, at the age of seventy-seven, as a result of complications arising from dementia.{{r|NYT|Times}}
==Notable guidebooks== *''Africa on the Cheap'' (1977) {{isbn|9780959808087}} *''South America on a Shoestring'' (1980) {{isbn|9780908086085}} *''India: A Travel Survival Kit'' (1981) {{isbn|9780908086238}} *''Malaysia, Singapore & Brunei: A Travel Survival Kit'' (1982) {{isbn|9780908086313}} *''Korea & Taiwan: A Travel Survival Kit'' (1982) {{isbn|9780908086108}} *''Africa on a Shoestring'' (1983) {{isbn|9780908086481}} *''East Africa: A Travel Survival Kit'' (1987) {{isbn|9780864420053}} *''Morocco, Algeria & Tunisia: A Travel Survival Kit'' (1989) {{isbn|9780864420343}} *''Kenya: A Travel Survival Kit'' (1991) {{isbn|9780864421036}}
==Notes== {{notelist}}
==References== <references>
<ref name=FT>{{cite web|last=Jenkins|first=Siona|date=14 May 2021|title=Geoff Crowther, guidebook writer, 1944–2021|url=https://www.ft.com/content/5227b4bd-8df8-4372-8483-c2686e485602|website=Financial Times|archive-url=https://archive.today/20210514231821/https://www.ft.com/content/5227b4bd-8df8-4372-8483-c2686e485602|archive-date=14 May 2021|url-status=live}}</ref>
<ref name=Independent>{{cite web|last=Calder|first=Simon|author-link=Simon Calder|date=28 April 2021|title=Geoff Crowther: The life of 'the patron saint of travellers in the third world'|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/lonely-planet-geoff-crowther-guidebooks-b1838557.html|website=The Independent|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210430102744/https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/lonely-planet-geoff-crowther-guidebooks-b1838557.html|archive-date=30 April 2021|url-status=live}}</ref>
<ref name=NYT>{{cite web|last=Roberts|first=Sam|date=7 May 2021|title=Geoff Crowther, 77, Dies; Guided Travelers Looking to Get Lost|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/07/world/geoff-crowther-77-dead.html|website=The New York Times|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210507205309/https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/07/world/geoff-crowther-77-dead.html|archive-date=7 May 2021|url-status=live}}</ref>
<ref name=R4>{{cite web|title=Last Word: Geoff Crowther, Isamu Akasaki, June Newton, Les McKeown|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000vjny|publisher=BBC Radio 4|date=30 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210430151431/https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000vjny|archive-date=30 April 2021|url-status=live}}</ref>
<ref name=Times>{{cite web|title=Geoff Crowther obituary|url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/article/geoff-crowther-obituary-3nbsnwqv3|website=The Times|date=13 May 2021|archive-url=https://archive.today/20220104004338/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/geoff-crowther-obituary-3nbsnwqv3|archive-date=4 January 2022|url-status=live}}</ref>
</references>
==External links== *[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRbHhsCY1mU Interview] with Ashley Crowther in 2021, in which he talks about his father.
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Crowther, Geoff}} Category:1944 births Category:2021 deaths Category:20th-century British travel writers Category:21st-century British travel writers Category:Alumni of the University of Liverpool Category:Deaths from dementia in Australia Category:Lonely Planet Category:People from West Yorkshire