About Duncan
Urban explorer Duncan JD Smith has a real knack for mapping the lesser-known parts of cities, discovering aspects of urban history which most visitors miss. One has the sense of a man who has conducted impeccable research but still contrives to arrive with an open mind. That’s a rare touch.
Hidden Europe magazine
Duncan JD Smith is The Urban Explorer, an independent travel writer, historian, photographer and publisher. Having worked for many years in the publishing industry selling other travel writers’ books, in 2003 he decided to start writing and publishing his own. He has subsequently embarked on a lifetime‘s adventure, travelling off the beaten track in search of the world’s hidden corners and curious locations, from the wartime bunkers of Berlin and the Baroque gardens of Prague to the souks of Damascus and the rock-cut churches of Ethiopia.
Duncan’s European findings are being published in a ground breaking series of guidebooks, the Only In Guides, designed specifically for the purpose and published under his own Urban Explorer imprint. Volumes on Berlin, Boston, Budapest, Cologne, Dubrovnik, Edinburgh, Hamburg, Krakow, London, Munich, Paris, Prague, Seville, Vienna, and Zurich have been published. Aimed at independent cultural travellers, these city tales from new perspectives provide unforgettable memories. The series has garnered considerable press acclaim, with sales to date in excess of 150,000 copies.
As a result of his extensive travels, not only through the storied cities of Old Europe but also in Africa, the Middle East, Asia and America, Duncan regularly generates original illustrated material for print and digital media. He has been commissioned to write articles in magazines such as Hidden Europe and Timeless Travels. Duncan has great affection for the places about which he has written, as well as an extensive photo library available for commercial usage (his images are also available as limited edition greetings cards and prints).
Duncan has appeared on radio and television to promote his work, including the American shows Raw Travel and Mysteries at the Museum. He has also given illustrated lectures in bookshops and universities, to societies and even at London’s Victoria & Albert Museum. He released his first audio tour CD in 2010.
Born in Sheffield, England in 1960, Duncan got the history bug when his grandfather, the historian Philip G. M. Dickinson, showed him a turf maze and the grave of a Roman soldier in his back garden! Aged just eleven Duncan opened his own private museum before going on to read Ancient History and Archaeology at Birmingham University. Together with his late father, Trevor, he wrote and illustrated four highly successful books on the curiosities of Sheffield and Yorkshire, their home town and county respectively. He also penned the best-selling topographical book Yorkshire: A Portrait in Colour. Still a passionate collector, his interests include vintage Penguin travel books and with them a fascination in forgotten British travellers of the 1920s and 30s. In his spare time he enjoys gardening, house restoration and natural history, and has an eclectic taste in music.
Duncan divides his time between England and Central Europe, and is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.