Ben McNally Travellers Series

Glenn Dixon has published travel articles in major publications such as National Geographic, the New York Post, Walrus, Globe and Mail, and Psychology Today. An expert on language with an M.A. in socio-linguistics, he is currently a language consultant with the Calgary Board of Education. Dixon presents Pilgrim in the Palace of Words: A Journey Through the 6,000 Languages of Earth, about his travels to explore and understand the way that languages create and mould societies.

Deirdre Kelly holds an M.A. in English from the University of Toronto. She was the award-winning dance critic for the Globe and Mail before becoming a fashion columnist in 2000, reporting from Paris and Milan. Now a features writer, she has written for Marie Claire, Vogue, and Elle. Kelly presents her first book, Paris Times Eight: Finding Myself in the City of Dreams, a poignant and often amusing reminiscence of growing to womanhood through her eight visits to Paris.

Ben McNally is the proprietor of Ben McNally Books in downtown Toronto.

Chuck Thompson, author of Smile When You're Lying, is a former features editor for Maxim and was the first editor in chief of Travelocity magazine and served as part of the editorial team for the launch of CNNGo.com. He has travelled on assignment to more than 35 countries and his writing and photography have appeared in Atlantic, Esquire, National Geographic Adventure, Playboy, Spy, Escape, WWE Magazine, Outside, Men's Journal, and the Los Angeles Times. Thompson presents To Hellholes and Back: Bribes, Lies, and the Art of Extreme Tourism, in which he sets out to face his worst travel fears in Africa, India, Mexico City, and - most terrifying of all - at Disney World.

For Deirdre Kelly, Paris is not only a dream city but also the place where she attains a deeper understanding of herself. Having always defined herself in opposition to her mother, Kelly finds in the city itself her “other mother,” the mother of her imagination. In her mind, Paris represents freedom – liberation for the mind and body – and a chance to reinvent herself as the confident Parisienne woman she longs to be. In Paris Times Eight, Kelly provides a poignant and often amusing reminiscence of growing to womanhood through her eight visits to Paris. During all these visits, Paris is the constant, but Kelly’s shifting emotional world creates varying perspectives on both the city and her evolving self.

Some 6,000 languages are still spoken on the planet today, and author Glenn Dixon – an expert in socio-linguistics and a tireless adventurer – has travelled to the four corners of the earth to explore the way these languages create and mould societies. With wit and humour, Dixon provides readers with a view in to his adventures from “Climbing the Tower of Babel” to searching “The Lost World of the Maya” as he moves toward a real understanding of how and why we communicate the way we do in the Global Village.

In the widely acclaimed Smile When You’re Lying, Chuck Thompson laid bare the travel industry’s dirtiest secrets. Now he’s out to discover if some of the world’s most ill-reputed destinations live up to their bad raps, while confronting a few of his own travel anxieties in the process. Whether he’s traveling across the Congo with a former bodyguard from notorious dictator Joseph Mobutu’s retinue or diving into the heart of India’s monsoon season, To Hellholes and Back delivers Thompson’s trademark combination of hilarious stories and wildly provocative opinions, as well as some surprising observations about America’s evolving place in the world.