Since spending a decade in Los Angeles as an editor and columnist, David Gritten has lived in London, writing mostly about film for the Los Angeles Times. More recently he has specialized in profiling screenwriters for Written By, the Writer’s Guild of America magazine. Examining Rome’s La Dolce Vita scene of the 1950s for Beyond was, he says, “a perfect assignment. I’ve loved Italy and its neo-realist films since my teens. His dream destination: “To travel the whole length of Chile – in my own sweet time.”
In the two decades since her first book, Hideous Kinky, was made into a film starring Kate Winslet, and she was named one of the UK’s top young novelists by literary magazine Granta, the actress-turned-writer has penned six more bestsellers. In this issue she recalls the journeys that influenced her life, including a trip to Italy with her father, the painter Lucian Freud, and a sojourn in South Africa with her actor husband, David Morrissey. Her latest book, Mr Mac and Me, is based on the life of Charles Rennie Mackintosh.
Described as “among the first rank of contemporary travel writers by The Times, the Canadian-born author has traversed the globe, from the ice deserts of Mongolia to the jungles of the Amazon, meeting maharajas, tribesmen and bandits en route. In between writing hundreds of articles for magazines like National Geographic and Condé Nast Traveller, winning Travel Writer of the Year six times, he has published three books. For Beyond, he describes a journey down the Nile through the cultural wonders of Egypt.
The Group Editor of The World’s 50 Best Restaurants has been a journalist and editor for more than 20 years. He considers himself incredibly lucky, being able to indulge his gluttony in a largely professional capacity. Recent food highlights include sampling wild mountain sheep in San Francisco and eating world-beating kebabs in Berlin, with plenty in between, including his top foodie destinations, Japan and Brazil. He is most looking forward to eating at Brae in Australia.
Having worked for British Vogue, and been watch and jewelry editor for Wallpaper*, the aptly named Diamond now writes about all things precious for Condé Nast Traveller. Her hunt for the latest trends in the world of horology and gems has taken her to Kuwait, St Barths and India, meeting CEOs and creative directors, from Victoire de Castellane of Dior to Francesca Amfitheatrof of Tiffany. Next on her wish list for 2017? To meet the cult jeweler JAR, and the most important stone man of all, Laurence Graff.
Stockholm-based Tobias Lundkvist, who traveled to Malaysia to shoot our beachwear story, has been a fashion photographer since 2008, working for major global brands like Lacoste, H&M and Hugo Boss as well as shooting covers for magazines such as Elle, Tush and L’Officiel Homme. This year, the thing he’s looking forward to most is a well-earned vacation in Indonesia: “I’m planning a surfing trip around Halmuhera in the Maluku Islands. It’s going to be amazing.”
