Maureen Wheeler, born in Belfast in 1950, had come to
Spain to collect the Communication Prize awarded by the Spanish Geographic
Society. She well deserved it. This woman is responsible for the travel guide
'The Lonely Planet', has seen under heavy rain in some God forsaken village in
some remote country, without a bed to fall dead in. Lonely Planet is the best
friend of thousands of rucksack travellers, a Bible that many follow to the
letter. "It's a travel guide, not a route map." she emphasized.
The Lonely Planet had then reached 100 million copies, 5 of which in Spain. An empire started one afternoon in October of 1970 when she was 20 years old. Belfast was then a very depressing city, so she came to London. Within 5 days she found work as secretary in a company that imported wine. She was happy. One day she went to Regent's Park and saw a young man sitting on a bench, but she sat down there anyway. She thought: if the man starts talking to her, she would simply ask him to leave her in peace. He must have spoken; they are still speaking now, as husband and wife.
Tony and Maureen. The writer and the business woman. The visionary and the pragmatic. With 22 and 26 years the couple travelled through Asia in an old Mini. After the Odyssey, fed up with responding the many doubts of people, she wrote 'Across Asia on the cheap', never thought that would turn out to be a great business. The key moment was in 1980, with 'The guide of India'. It took her 15 months. Had it not worked, they would have lost everything. But, 50,000 copies were sold in just one month.
Since then, the whole thing just took off, growing bigger and bigger. 'It's like a son who is now flying on his own.' she said. They have a son and a daughter, Tashi (benediction in Tibetan) and Kieran (black prince in Irish). She likes to travel, Kieran no.
Few years ago BBC Worldwide acquired 75% of Lonely Planet and employed 350 writers from all over the world. One of them, Thomas Kohnstamm, scandalized many travellers by denouncing that she had written the guide of Colombia without ever having set foot in that country. Wheeler, usually calm, retorted that one has only to revise the historical part; nobody expects you to actually go there.
Wheeler travels now 3 months a year, considering travelling a challenge that makes one feel alive. "Each day is new and real." Sometimes the couple would follow one of' their guides to see whether it's well written and sufficiently informative. Tony was writing the guide 'From Tanzania to Malaui' on a bicycle. He was furious not able to find a hotel, because all were full of reporters following Madonna, who was there to adopt a child. "The planet has changed!' he says wistfully.
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