Sarah Hobson, a travel writer and television producer, has long sought to explore different cultures as a participant, not merely as a viewer. Whether she is masquerading as a boy in Iran or living with a rural family in India, she submerges herself in the societies that she visits, hoping more accurately to describe their cultures. Although her home is in Northamptonshire, England, Hobson's work spans the globe from Iran to Peru.

Sarah Hobson was born on 17 April 1947 to John Gardner Sumner Hobson, a lawyer and member of parliament, and Beryl Marjorie Johnson, a winner of the junior doubles tennis tournament at Wimbledon and daughter of a successful factory owner. As a child, Hobson lived in Northamptonshire and vacationed with her family in Scotland. Hobson describes her education as “erratic in quality and quantity,” with her parents sending her to six schools in twelve years. Her early mobility...