I am a British writer and journalist, linguist and book editor. Since 2005 I have travelled across Eurasia, working in the cities of Central Asia, Eastern Europe and the Caucasus, and wandering in their wildernesses.
In the last 20 years I have been a student in Russia (2005-2006); a translator and editor at law firms in Kyiv, Ukraine (2007-2010); a translator and editor for business conferences in the Eurasia region (2011-2015); and a roving wine & spirits analyst (2015-2018). For this job I travelled to 11 countries, including Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, for business meetings with alcohol companies.
CENTRAL ASIA
As senior editor at The Times of Central Asia from 2023-2026 I also made several trips every year to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, while writing about topics from saiga antelope and snow leopards to trade and politics.
In 2024 I was in Kazakhstan to cover the B5+1 Forum in Almaty and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit in Astana. That year I was a speaker at the CAMCA Forum in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. In 2025 I covered the same forum in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. I have given interviews about Central Asian affairs to the pan-CIS television channel Mir24 TV (in Russian), and China Global Television Network (CGTN).
In 2026 I competed at the World Nomad Games in Cholpon-Ata in Kyrgyzstan, representing Great Britain in traditional Kyrgyz alysh wrestling.
WRITING AND BOOK EDITING
My first book, Getting Out: The Ukrainian Cricket Team’s Last Stand on the Front Lines of War, was shortlisted at the Charles Tyrwhitt Sports Book Awards in 2025.
I am also a freelance book editor. I recently edited the catalogue for an exhibition dedicated to the Uzbek scholar Abu Rayhon Beruni for Uzbekistan’s Art and Culture Development Foundation. In 2021 I edited Begizhan Akhmedov’s The Wanderer, a spiritual novel set in the mountains of Central Asia, once named Kyrgyzstan’s book of the year.
Away from Eurasia I have edited around 20 titles on self-development and wellbeing, including two books by the Dutch author Mags Thomson about overcoming trauma: The Power of Reinvention (2021) and The Ugly Duckling Diaries (2024).
I have written about travelling in the Eurasia region for Lonely Planet, National Geographic Traveler, Open Central Asia magazine, and others. My writing has also been published in several books, including the Bradt Guides anthology Kidding Around, in several editions of the annual Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack.
TRANSLATION
I have been a professional Russian translator since 2007, and still take on occasional creative projects — both independently, and as a committee member of the Eurasian Creative Guild. I translated the novel A Hundred Years on the Steppe by the Kazakh author Bayangali Alimzhanov in 2019, and wrote subtitles for the short Kyrgyz film Zhanyrtuu (Renewal) by filmmaker Victoria Arkhangelskaya in 2022.
In 2017 two of my photographs, from Almaty and Tashkent, were featured in the exhibition ‘Daily Life in Central Asia’, organised by the European Union’s SEnECA project.
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To discuss working together, please write to me at hello@jonathancampion.com.
