A former editor of Mr & Mrs Smith, Rufus Purdy began his working life dressed as a giant banana (complete with yellow tights), handing flyers to tourists outside Covent Garden tube station. He then graduated to the heights of junior sub-editor at Harper’s Bazaar, where he honed his skills dragging celebrities’ barely literate copy into the realms of acceptability. A spell at Conde Nast Traveller pigeon-holed him for life, and he has since claimed free holidays as travel editor at Psychologies, or on jaunts for The Observer, Sunday Times Travel Magazine, JL Edition and The New York Post. Highlights of his post-Smith career include learning how to butcher a pig and pen erotic fiction for The Times – oh, and becoming a father. He is currently working on a novel.

Rufus Purdy anonymously reviewed:
Brown's Hotel in London – Read the review
Baudon de Mauny in Languedoc-Roussillon – Read the review
Hôtel des Academies et des Arts in Paris – Read the review
L'Hôtel in Paris – Read the review
St Moritz Hotel in Cornwall – Read the review
Mario de' Fiori 37 in Rome – Read the review