Kevin Sullivan studied Ancient Greek at school in Scotland and hitchhiked around mainland Greece as a student in the 1970s. Though most of his career in journalism involved reporting from East Asia, he also covered the conflict in former Yugoslavia (in 1993 he was seriously injured in a landmine explosion in Central Bosnia), an experience that renewed his interest in the culture and history of Southeast Europe. In the mid 1990s, Kevin and his wife Marija bought an antique house in a mountain village south of Granada, and for several years lived and worked in the distinctive and infinitely interesting atmosphere of rural Spain. Today, with their daughter Katarina, they spend summers in the same village, walking, swimming, eating ice cream and enjoying the company of neighbours. The rest of the year they live in Sarajevo, Marija's native city and a place where Kevin has felt at home since he first visited in 1991. Their old Austro-Hungarian apartment is full of books and (homemade as well as rerecorded) music.