When the Berlin Wall came down, Katharina Kane escaped from the confines of East Germany, packed her bags and took up a life of restlessness. In London, she discovered the world packed neatly into one capital. African summer stages, Latin clubs and the Asian underground sidetracked her from practising classical flute concertos and seduced her into a PhD in African music studies. She spent months researching in Guinea and Gambia before realising that travel writing and producing radio shows were the perfect antidote to dry academia. Eventually she decamped to Senegal full-time to pursue simultaneous careers in project management, social marketing and travel & music journalism. She is the co-author of Lonely Planet guides to Africa and West Africa, a contributor to world-music magazines fRoots and Songlines and produces world-music features for BBC and WDR radio.