About Lois

Author / Journalist / Speaker
Pryce writes as she acts, with an easy ebullience, and this makes interesting things happen to her...

The Telegraph

Greetings, readers and adventurers. Here you can discover my books, journalism and talks, read my travel tales, watch video from my adventures, and listen to my radio programmes and podcast interviews.

My love of exploration began aged 13, when along with three school friends, I bicycled around Cornwall for a week – with no grown-ups. Travelling without any particular destination in mind and camping in fields and farmers’ barns along the way, it was this freewheeling, improvised approach that set a template for my future solo adventures. I’ve since travelled in over sixty countries on every continent (except Antarctica), and written extensively about these adventures through my books and journalism.

Up until 2003 I worked in the music industry in London, culminating in a position at the BBC’s (now defunct) record label. The pivotal moment came when we scored a gold record – with the Bob the Builder single. While the champagne corks popped, I had a hunch there was more to life… I’d recently passed my motorcycle test, so I quit the office to ride 20,000 miles from Alaska to the tip of South America on a small dirtbike. Upon my return home, my book about this trip, Lois on the Loose, was published throughout the world, and set me off on a new career as an author and travel writer.

My next expedition saw me ride the length of Africa, from London to Cape Town via the Sahara, Congo and Angola. This resulted in my second book, Red Tape & White Knuckles which was excerpted in the New York Times and remains a definitive account of this classic overland journey.

My latest book, Revolutionary Ride, tells the story of my 3000-mile, solo motorcycle ride around Iran, which turned out to be the most enchanting and mind-altering journey of my life. The book was shortlisted for the 2018 Edward Stanford Travel Writing Award, and named a Book of the Year by National Geographic Traveller Magazine, describing it as ‘a joyful, moving and stereotype-busting tale’.

As well as my books, I write about places, people and culture for various publications in the UK and USA, including the Guardian, Observer, Telegraph, CNN and The Independent, and contribute to From Our Own Correspondent on BBC Radio 4. I am a contributing editor to Overland Journal (USA) and was the travel editor for Bike Magazine (UK) from 2016-2020. I also host and take part in literary and travel events around the world, teach non-fiction/memoir writing for the Arvon Foundation, am a Fellow of the Royal Literary Fund and a judge for the Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards.

With my husband, adventure film-maker, Austin Vince, I co-founded The Adventure Travel Film Festival which occurs annually in the U.K. and Australia.

My home-life, like my journeys is lo-fi, gadget-free and all about the good stuff – nature, people, words and music. So when I’m not writing or roaming, I will be found messing about on my boat on the River Thames, curled up with a book, or pickin’ the banjo in my bluegrass band.