As an author, Bill is probably better known, under his byline of Sean Collins, for his books set in the shadowy world of global intelligence. He has been contributing, under several bylines, to international magazines and press for over four decades. As a travel writer, critic and editor, Bill has travelled extensively, from Taipei and Tahiti to Hong Kong and Bora Bora. In Travails Abroad, he takes a retrospective look at the embarrassing dilemmas and outright disasters which have befallen him: from being glued to a jeep in Tahiti, being trapped in an outside toilet on a mountaintop in Turkey, and trying to attract the attention of the staff of a Berlin restaurant to the fact his wife was on fire. He says: `all the disasters in this book are absolutely true - I have witnesses. I trust what I endured may appeal to the reader's sense of humour and sympathy - they certainly didn't appeal to mine at the time...' Bill admits that potential travellers reading this book could be forgiven for deciding to stay at home.