Somerset Playne (1875 – 10 August 1944) was a British explorer and a manager for Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company who travelled the British Empire and wrote books about it.

He studied at Clifton College and St Edward's School, Oxford.

[1] His travels included to British East Africa and wrote a book about it.

Later he wrote books about Ceylon, the Federated Malay States, Hong Kong and Shanghai, and visited Java, Labuan, Borneo, and Formosa, Cape Colony, the Orange Free State, and New Zealand between 1908 and 1913.

He travelled almost 7,000 miles on motorcycle and produced his travelogue about southern India.