Author profile

James Proctor first came across all things Nordic as a student. After mistakenly wandering into a Swedish lecture, he realised that his native Yorkshire dialect, liberally laced with dozens of Viking words, would make learning the off-beat Scandinavian language a doddle. So began a 30-plus-year love affair with Sweden and other Nordic countries. A former BBC Scandinavia correspondent who presents a regular show on his local North Yorkshire radio station, he has become an experienced travel writer specialising in Nordic countries. Bradt’s very own Nanook of the North has written or co-written Bradt’s Svalbard, Faroes, Lapland and West Sweden guidebooks and co-authored other travel guides to Iceland, Reykjavík, Sweden and Finland. He welcomes snow, ice and howling wind as exactly the charm of the Nordic region – it’s wild, it’s unspoilt and it’s relatively undiscovered. James now divides his time between southern France, his native Yorkshire and a Swedish forest retreat.