Lois Pryce (born 13 January 1973) is a British author, journalist and a founder/curator of the Adventure Travel Film Festival. She is the author of ''Lois on the Loose'', ''Red Tape & White Knuckles'' and ''Revolutionary Ride'''','' travel memoirs about her solo motorcycle journeys through the

Americas The Americas, which are sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North and South America. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and comprise the New World. Along with th ...

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

and

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

Early life

She was born in

Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...

but grew up in

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

. She has lived in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

since 1992.

Career

She worked in the music industry in London until April 2003 when she left her position at

BBC Music BBC Music is responsible for the music played across the BBC. The current director of music is Bob Shennan, who is also the controller of BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 6 Music, and the BBC Asian Network. Officially it is a part of the BBC's Radio o ...

to make a 10-month solo

motorcycle A motorcycle (motorbike, bike, or trike (if three-wheeled)) is a two or three-wheeled motor vehicle steered by a handlebar. Motorcycle design varies greatly to suit a range of different purposes: long-distance travel, commuting, cruising ...

journey of approximately 20,000 miles from

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...

Tierra del Fuego Tierra del Fuego (, ; Spanish for "Land of the Fire", rarely also Fireland in English) is an archipelago off the southernmost tip of the South American mainland, across the Strait of Magellan. The archipelago consists of the main island, Isla G ...

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

. This resulted in her first book, ''Lois on the Loose'', which was published in the UK in 2007 by

Arrow An arrow is a fin-stabilized projectile launched by a bow. A typical arrow usually consists of a long, stiff, straight shaft with a weighty (and usually sharp and pointed) arrowhead attached to the front end, multiple fin-like stabilizers c ...

, an imprint of

Random House Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...

, and in the USA by

Thomas Dunne Books Thomas Dunne Books was an imprint of St. Martin's Press, which is a division of Macmillan Publishers. From 1986 until April 2020, it published popular trade fiction and nonfiction. History The imprint signed David Irving, a scholar, for a Joseph ...

, an imprint of

St. Martin's Press St. Martin's Press is a book publisher headquartered in Manhattan, New York City, in the Equitable Building. St. Martin's Press is considered one of the largest English-language publishers, bringing to the public some 700 titles a year under si ...

. It has also been translated into German, Dutch and Italian. It is currently published in the USA by

Lee Klancher Lee Klancher's career encompasses more than 30 years of publishing stories. As an editor and publisher, he has overseen the development of some of the best-selling books in the transportation niche. A prolific author and photographer, Lee has contr ...

's Octane Press.

The Telegraph ''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are popular names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include: Australia * ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaide, South Australia, publ ...

said it "Roars along at a breakneck pace and is full of snappy accounts and funny asides." In 2006 she made her second long-distance solo motorcycle expedition from London to

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

, a journey of approximately 10,000 miles. Her route involved crossing the Sahara and traversing the Congo Basin and Angola. Her book about this trip, ''Red Tape & White Knuckles'', was published in 2008 in the UK by Arrow/Random House, in the USA by Octane Press and in Germany b
Dumont
It was excerpted in

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

where it was described as Breezy and upbeat ... enough to make readers reach for their helmets and aim for a remote part of the globe. In 2013 and 2014 she made two solo motorcycle tours of Iran, which is the subject of her third book, ''Revolutionary Ride'', published in 2017 in the UK and USA by Nicholas Brealey/Hodder and in Germany b
Dumont
It was shortlisted for Adventure Book of the Year in th
2018 Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards
and selected as one of National Geographic Traveller magazine's Books of the Year in 2017, describing it as …a proper travelogue - a joyful, moving and stereotype-busting tale. Lois' expeditions and assignments have taken to her over sixty countries. The Telegraph listed her as one of Ten Great Female Travellers'' for International Women's Day 2015. She is a fellow of

The Royal Literary Fund The Royal Literary Fund (RLF) is a benevolent fund that gives assistance to published British writers in financial difficulties. Founded in 1790, and granted a royal charter in 1818, the Fund has helped an extensive roll of authors through its long ...

and contributes regularly to various publications in the UK and the USA. Her writing has appeared in

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the w ...

, The Telegraph,

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

and

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by the M ...

. She is a contributing editor to the US travel magazine, Overland Journal and worked as the travel/adventure editor for Bike Magazine from 2016 to 2020. She is a regular contributor to the long-running BBC Radio programme, ''

From Our Own Correspondent ''From Our Own Correspondent'' is a weekly BBC radio programme in which BBC foreign correspondents deliver a sequence of short talks reflecting on current events and topical themes in the countries outside the UK in which they are based. The pro ...

'' and was previously the travel consultant on

BBC Radio 5 Live BBC Radio 5 Live is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that broadcasts mainly news, sport, discussion, interviews and phone-ins. It is the principal BBC radio station covering sport in the United Kingdom, broadcast ...

's Up All Night'' programme. She is also the co-founder and curator of The Adventure Travel Film Festival with her husband, the long-distance motorcyclist and film-maker

Austin Vince Austin Vince is best known for his long distance adventure motorcycle expeditions: twice round the world as part of the Mondo Enduro and Terra Circa trips, which were both produced as TV documentaries. As well as presenting the ''Mondo Enduro'' ...

. The festival takes place annually in England, Scotland and Australia.

Personal life

Lois is married to round-the-world motorcyclist and film-maker,

. She is an inland waterways enthusiast and owns a classic Dutch sailing barge. She is the banjo player in the all-female bluegrass band, The Jolenes from 2008 to 2018 and now plays the banjo in The Sisters & The Brothers. She is the great granddaughter of Nobel Prize-winning physicist,

Max Born Max Born (; 11 December 1882 – 5 January 1970) was a German physicist and mathematician who was instrumental in the development of quantum mechanics. He also made contributions to solid-state physics and optics and supervised the work of a n ...

and first cousin once removed to

Olivia Newton-John Dame Olivia Newton-John (26 September 1948 – 8 August 2022) was a British-Australian singer, actress and activist. She was a four-time Grammy Award winner whose music career included 15 top-ten singles, including 5 number-one singles on the ...

and third cousin once removed to

Ben Elton Benjamin Charles Elton (born 3 May 1959) is an English comedian, actor, author, playwright, lyricist and director. He was a part of London's alternative comedy movement of the 1980s and became a writer on the sitcoms '' The Young Ones'' and ''Bla ...

Bibliography

2007

''Lois on the Loose'' published by Arrow/Random House (UK) an
Octane Press
(USA) Published in Germany as ''Vollgas'' (

Ullstein Verlag The ''Ullstein Verlag'' was founded by Leopold Ullstein in 1877 at Berlin and is one of the largest publishing companies of Germany. It published newspapers like '' B.Z.'' and ''Berliner Morgenpost'' and books through its subsidiaries ''Ullstein B ...

) Published as ''Lois Onderweg'' in the Netherlands (Sirene) Published as ''Verso Ushuaia'' in Italy (RideRTW)

2008

''Red Tape & White Knuckles'' published by Arrow/Random House (UK) and Octane Press (USA) Published in Germany as ''Mit 80 Schutzengeln durch Afrika'' b
Dumont

2017

''Revolutionary Ride'' published by Nicholas Brealey/Hodder (UK & USA) Published in Germany as ''Im Iran dürfen Frauen nicht Motorrad fahren'' b
Dumont
translated by Monika Baark

Published articles

Please see https://www.loispryce.com/journalism/ for an up-to-date list of published articles.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pryce, Lois British women travel writers British travel writers British women journalists Long-distance motorcycle riders Motorcycling mass media people Women motorcyclists