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The past and future of the Lonely Planet founders
You've heard by now that the founders of the Lonely Planet recently sold the majority share of their company to BBC Worldwide. But what's next for Tony and Maureen Wheeler? What else -- travel. And with £45million in their bank account from the BBC, they don't need to go anywhere On a Shoestring anymore -- they can afford the best of the best. The Wheelers recently spoke to the Daily Mail about their past, present and future as Lonely Planet founders. The past is what I find most interesting -- the iconic guidebook started out as merely a 94-page guide called Across Asia on the Cheap, and it was held together by staples. Later, when they started their company, they named it after a line in a Joe Cocker song -- except they got it wrong. The line actually reads 'lovely planet', not 'lonely planet.'
Tony and Maureen won't quit writing just yet. And their kids continue to work at Lonely Planet so the Wheeler's presence will have an impact on the guidebook for a long time to come, I suspect. For more about the stories behind the Lonely Planet, click here.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Chris Nov 6th 2007 1:57PM
The thing that's funny (funny strange not funny ha ha) about the Wheelers is that they seem to have a peculiar resentment of having created such a huge company. They've done a lot of interviews where they bemoan the fact LP is now full of Mercedes driving lawyers and people whose names they don't even know. I imagine semi-retiring has been a huge relief and lets them get back to doing what they really enjoy.
I wrote an in-depth review of The Lonely Planet Story, the Wheelers' autobiography-cum-business biography here:
http://travelhappy.info/travel-books/the-lonely-planet-story-tony-and-maureen-wheeler-book-review/
It's pretty dry but it's fascinating none the less. Tony Wheeler's Bad Lands (which I also reviewed) is more of a real travel book - The LP Story reads like an itinerary rather than a biography at some points.
http://travelhappy.info/travel-books/book-review-tony-wheelers-bad-lands-a-tourist-on-the-axis-of-evil/