✨ Welcome to our series, TravMedia's Travel Writer of the Week! ✨

Each week, we'll be shining a spotlight on one of the incredibly talented, passionate, and inspiring Journalists or Editors from our amazing community.

This week, we'd like to shine the spotlight on Assistant Editor at National Geographic (UK) - Sam Kemp!

We hope you enjoy - happy reading !!

Where are you based?

In Brockley, south London. Goldsmiths University, where I studied, is just around the corner, so the area has a really nice creative buzz.

What outlets do you write for? Who is your audience? What are your travel specialties?

National Geographic Traveller (UK). I write for people like me – the curious, adventurous and unashamedly nerdy. I've written about all sorts of places, but I'm especially interested in emerging and overlooked destinations. Sierra Leone, somewhere I found myself exploring this time last year, was a good example of that. I've also written a fair amount about Italy, where my partner is from.

Are you in-house or freelance (or both)?

In-house. I'm the Assistant Editor for National Geographic Traveller (UK), where I do a mixture of editing and writing for the main magazine.

In your past professional life you were …

A gardener, a creative writing tutor and a sound designer for a touring theatre company – all at the same time. I believe they call it a portfolio career. 

Where would you like to return to?

Castel Pergine in Trentino, Italy. It's this hotel in an old medieval castle, so obviously the whole place is teeming with strange artefacts (and a few ghosts, I'm told). I'd very much like to spend a night in the round tower, which looks onto a walled garden heavy with jasmine in spring.

What's on your bucket list?

How long have you got? Right now, I'm eyeing up Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Ethiopia and Lesotho.

Where do you travel for fun?

The UK mostly. My friends and I often head off for wild camping trips in Scotland. Last autumn, we hiked across the Knoydart Peninsula to reach the Old Forge – the most remote pub on the UK mainland.

Your funniest (or most harrowing) travel story is …

I once convinced by partner to join me on a guided horse trek. She'd never ridden before, and I'd only done so once or twice. I could tell she was nervous, and clearly so could her horse, because no sooner had she got in the saddle than it bolted, carrying her off at what seemed like 100mph. My own steed, clearly feeling it was missing out, promptly did the same. We galloped flat out for a good five minutes before we came to a standstill. She's not set foot near a horse since.

How best should people contact you?

Just drop me an e-mail at sam.kemp@natgeotraveller.co.uk