languages and Russian. Ken taught himself to play the piano, looking over the shoulder of a gifted uncle “I also spent a lot of time under the piano with the dog watching grown-ups…”.

Ken studied media in London at St Martin’s College of Art. After completing this he studied at the London College of Journalism, paying the rent in Soho by doubling as a bar pianist at night. Holiday jobs included working as a Christmas postman, a shepherd one spring, a bank clerk and a lumberjack in Sweden. One summer holiday he cycled with a tent through France from Bretagne, via Mont Ventoux, to the Italian border at Menton.

Wilkie says that his passion to become a reporter was fired by the humorous and graphic short stories of Welsh poet Dylan Thomas. So he began working as a reporter himself with a local newspaper, then as a sub-editor/page designer and feature writer in Scotland and England for national newspapers like The Guardian and The Herald who sent him on his first travel assignment to