Brian Thacker was born in England but didn't like the weather so he emigrated to Australia when he was six. He has worked as a tour leader, ski guide, advertising art director, silver service waiter, painter, barman, paper shredder, newspaper delivery boy and butcher's assistant. He has written over a thousand postcards in his travels and is the author of Rule No. 5: No Sex on the Bus (2001) and Planes, Trains and Elephants (2002). So far he has visited 58 countries (59 if you count Tasmania). He lives in Melbourne with his wife Natalie and daughter Jasmine.