A native of Scotland now based in London, Neil Murray, is not only the freelance sub-editor of Essentially America and a regular contributor to the magazine but has also edited several Phoenix International Publishing travel guides, including the ones on the Great Lakes USA, California and the Capital Region USA. A former journalist with the London Daily Mirror and a regular contributor to the Scottish Sunday Mail, he won the prestigious first (2008) annual Travel Industry Association Discover America Travel Writer award for the best US Travel Destination article, The March of the Murals, which appeared in Essentially America in 2007. In 2017, he was voted Travel Writer of the Year by the Visit USA UK Association for his body of work on the USA. In 2018 he has been travelling to US destinations from the East to West Coasts researching features for Essentially America and other publications.
