Will Ferguson

Will Ferguson was born and raised in the former fur-trapping settlement of Fort Vermilion in the backwoods of northern Canada. Fortunately, he managed to escape, and he has since travelled throughout Latin America and East Asia. Indeed, he prides himself on having gotten utterly and hopelessly lost in more than a dozen exotic locales, including Ecuador, Peru, Indonesia, Malaysia, China, Korea, and Japan. "How I ever became a travel writer is beyond me," he confesses. "I have absolutely no sense of direction." Ferguson has a B.F.A. in screenwriting from York University, Toronto, and is the author of six previous books, including the satirical bestseller Why I Hate Canadians, which was all-but banned from export (though it can be ordered online at chapters.ca he advises). His other works include a nuts-and-bolts traveller's bible, The Hitchhiker's Guide to Japan, as well as a humorous expose about his experience in a mis-guided drunken government youth program, entitled I Was a Teenage Katima-victim! He has also written an insightful and highly scientific political analysis: Bastards & Boneheads (it was a study of our leaders). Hokkaido Highway Blues is his first travel memoir, though he is now threatening to come to the U.K. for his next book -- If he doesn't get lost along the way.