Rough Guides Ltd is a travel guidebook

GUIdebook

GUIdebook is a website that contains screenshots of computer software.It shows a visual history of the software's user interface. It includes operating systems like Mac OS and Windows, desktop environments like GNOME and KDE, portable operating systems like Newton OS and Windows CE, and...

 and reference

Reference

Reference is derived from Middle English referren, from Middle French rèférer, from Latin referre, "to carry back", formed from the prefix re- and ferre, "to bear"...

 publisher, owned by Pearson PLC

Pearson PLC

Pearson plc is a global media and education company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is both the largest education company and the largest book publisher in the world, with consumer imprints including Penguin, Dorling Kindersley and Ladybird...

. Their travel titles cover more than 200 destinations, and are distributed worldwide through the Penguin Group

Penguin Group

The Penguin Group is a trade book publisher, the largest in the world , having overtaken Random House in 2009. The Penguin Group is the name of the incorporated division of parent Pearson PLC that oversees these publishing operations...

. The series began with the 1982 Rough Guide to Greece, a book conceived by Mark Ellingham, who was dissatisfied with the polarisation of existing guidebooks between cost-obsessed student guides and "heavyweight cultural tomes". Initially, the series was aimed at low-budget backpackers

Backpacking (travel)

Backpacking is a term that has historically been used to denote a form of low-cost, independent international travel. Terms such as independent travel and/or budget travel are often used...

. The Rough Guides books have incorporated more expensive recommendations since the early 1990s, and books have had colour printing since the late 1990s, which are now marketed to travellers on all budgets. Much of the books' travel content is also available online.

Ellingham left Rough Guides in November 2007, after the company had celebrated "25 Rough Years" with a celebratory series of books, to set up a new green and ethical imprint at Profile Books. Rough Guides is now run by co-founder Martin Dunford (travel) and Andrew Lockett (reference), under the aegis of Penguin. It is based at the Penguin offices at 80 Strand, London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, with a satellite office in Delhi

Delhi

Delhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census...

.

The slogan of Rough Guides is "Make the Most of Your Time on Earth".

Books

Most of the series' early titles were written or edited by John Fisher, Jack Holland and Martin Dunford, who along with Mark Ellingham were co-founders and owners of Rough Guides. In 1995, they negotiated the sale of the series to Penguin Books

Penguin Books

Penguin Books is a publisher founded in 1935 by Sir Allen Lane and V.K. Krishna Menon. Penguin revolutionised publishing in the 1930s through its high quality, inexpensive paperbacks, sold through Woolworths and other high street stores for sixpence. Penguin's success demonstrated that large...

, a process which was completed in 2002.

In 1994, the first ever non-travel Rough Guides books were published – The Rough Guide to World Music and The Rough Guide to Classical Music. The success of these titles encouraged Rough Guides’ expansion into other areas of publishing to cover a range of reference subjects, including music

Music

Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...

 - covering genres such as world music

World music

World music is a term with widely varying definitions, often encompassing music which is primarily identified as another genre. This is evidenced by world music definitions such as "all of the music in the world" or "somebody else's local music"...

, rock

Rock music

Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...

, hip-hop, jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

, and individual artists – and topics such as film

Film

A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

, literature

Literature

Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...

, popular science

Popular science

Popular science, sometimes called literature of science, is interpretation of science intended for a general audience. While science journalism focuses on recent scientific developments, popular science is broad-ranging, often written by scientists as well as journalists, and is presented in many...

, ethical living

Ethical living

Ethical living is the philosophy of making decisions for daily life which take into account ethics and moral values, particularly with regard to consumerism, sustainability, environmentalism, wildlife and animal welfare...

, true crime

True crime

True crime is a non-fiction literary and film genre in which the author examines an actual crime and details the actions of real people.The crimes most commonly include murder, but true crime works have also touched on other legal cases. Depending on the writer, true crime can adhere strictly to...

, Shakespeare, pregnancy

Pregnancy

Pregnancy refers to the fertilization and development of one or more offspring, known as a fetus or embryo, in a woman's uterus. In a pregnancy, there can be multiple gestations, as in the case of twins or triplets...

 and birth

Birth

Birth is the act or process of bearing or bringing forth offspring. The offspring is brought forth from the mother. The time of human birth is defined as the time at which the fetus comes out of the mother's womb into the world...

, plus the Internet

Internet

The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...

 and related subjects such as e-Bay, blogging and iPods.

Music

In association with UK

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

-based record label World Music Network, Rough Guides has issued over 240 recorded anthologies of the music of various nations and regions. In addition to their "Rough Guide" Series, the record label World Music Network has released over 70 recordings in their other "Introducing", "Riverboat", and "Think Global" Series.

Albums released in the series include The Rough Guide to... Bhangra, Tito Puente

Tito Puente

Tito Puente, , born Ernesto Antonio Puente, was a Latin jazz and Salsa musician. The son of native Puerto Ricans Ernest and Ercilia Puente, of Spanish Harlem in New York City, Puente is often credited as "El Rey de los Timbales" and "The King of Latin Music"...

, Romanian Gypsies, Hungarian Gypsies and Ali Hassan Kuban

Ali Hassan Kuban

Ali Hassan Kuban was a Nubian singer and bandleader. He was known as the "Captain" or "Godfather" of Nubian Music....

.

Television

In the late 1980s, the Rough Guides brand was spun off into a series of successful travel shows on United Kingdom television channel BBC 2. Initially part of Janet Street Porter's DEF II

DEF II

DEF II was a programming strand on BBC Two, which aired at 6pm on Mondays and Wednesdays from 9 May 1988 to 23 May 1994, to serve the teenage market. It was produced by Janet Street-Porter, and followed on from her influential youth TV show Network 7, on Channel 4...

 strand, alongside Rapido

Rapido (television)

Rapido was a BBC2 television show which ran from 1988 to 1992 and was presented by Antoine de Caunes. It ran in over 14 countries worldwide . The show which would usually go out in an early evening slot, such as 7.30pm on a Wednesday night, featured reports from up and coming new bands linked...

 and Jovanotti

Jovanotti

Lorenzo Cherubini, better known as Jovanotti, is an Italian singer-songwriter and rapper.The name Jovanotti derives from the plural form of the Italian word giovanotto , i.e. giovanotti. Lorenzo Cherubini originally auditioned a band with the name "I Giovanotti", but the record producer only was...

's Gimme 5

Gimme 5

Gimme 5 was a children's television programme broadcast on Saturday mornings on ITV from 1992 to 1994. The programme was a live two-hour show which included live guests, cartoons, competitions and games. For series 1, it was presented by Jenny Powell, Lewis MacLeod, Matthew Davies,and Nobby the...

, the show outlasted the 'yoof-tv' strand and became established in BBC 2's early 1990s evening schedule.

Later editions of the show, usually hosted by Sigue Sigue Sputnik

Sigue Sigue Sputnik

Sigue Sigue Sputnik were a British new wave band created in 1982 by the former Generation X bassist Tony James. The band had three UK Top 40 hit singles, including the song "Love Missile F1-11".-Early years:...

 associate Magenta Devine

Magenta Devine

Magenta Devine is a TV presenter and journalist. She is perhaps most known for presenting the youth travel programme, Rough Guide and "Reportage" on BBC2 in the 1990s. Then "Young, Gifted and Broke" for ITV.She began her career working for Queen/Thin Lizzy/Whitesnake publicist, the late Tony...

 (with various male co-presenters through the show's run), were repeated on the Sky Travel

Sky Travel

Sky Real Lives was an in-house channel from BSkyB that showed extensive programmes about travel, adverts for travel agencies and documentaries. The channels closed on 19 August 2010.-History:...

 channel until 2005.

A new Rough Guide series of fifteen thirty-minute programmes started production in November 2007 and began airing on Five (the UK's fifth terrestrial channel), on 7 January 2008. The series was created by the award-winning factual TV company, Lion Television. The 'Rough Guide to…' series was so successful that a second series was aired, starting in November 2008.

Environmental campaigns

In spring 2006, Mark Ellingham said he had grave concerns about the growth in air travel

Air travel

Air travel is a form of travel in vehicles such as airplanes, helicopters, hot air balloons, blimps, gliders, hang gliding, parachuting or anything else that can sustain flight.-Domestic and international flights:...

 because of its growing contribution to climate change

Aviation and the environment

The environmental impact of aviation occurs because aircraft engines emit noise, particulates, and gases which contribute to climate change and global dimming...

.
He launched a joint awareness campaign with Tony Wheeler (Lonely Planet

Lonely Planet

Lonely Planet is the largest travel guide book and digital media publisher in the world. The company is owned by BBC Worldwide, which bought a 75% share from the founders Maureen and Tony Wheeler in 2007 and the final 25% in February 2011...

founder), and Rough Guides began including a "health warning" in each of its travel guides, urging readers to "Fly less, stay longer" wherever possible.

External links

• Rough Guides
• Make the Most of Your Time on Earth
• Rough Roads
• World Music Network, distributing arm of Rough Guides music recordings