Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards 2018 magazine

THE BEST TRAVEL WRITING IN THE WORLD

edwardstanfordawards.com @ESTravelAwards

In 1853 Edward Stanford established his map-making business in the heart of London, at the height of the British Empire. His maps fuelled a passion for adventure, exploration and foreign travel, which in turn led to an explosion in travel writing. From that day to this we estimate that his eponymous business has sold books and maps that, end to end, would stretch around the circumference of the earth.

Around 160 years later we created the Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards to champion almost every genre of Travel Writing.

They were created to celebrate all travel writers, a group of very special individuals who devote their lives to cataloguing their adventures to entertain, inspire and enrich the lives of the reader.

Welcome Within the pages of this brochure you will find a most special selection of books that have been shortlisted and those that have gone on to win the awards. These were presented at a star-studded gala dinner in the Pillar Hall at Olympia on 1st February 2018.

The awards include Fiction, Adventure Travel, Travel Cookery, Children’s, Photography & Illustrated, General Travel-Themed, the renowned Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year as well as the best Blog and New Travel Writing.

We were also absolutely delighted to award the Edward Stanford Award for Outstanding Contribution to Travel Writing to Jan Morris, arguably the greatest biographer of people and places of her time.

We hope you are able to enjoy as many of the selected books as you can – and please look out for the Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards logo in bookshops, libraries and online.

Tony Maher, Managing Director, Edward Stanford Limited

edwardstanfordawards.com @ESTravelAwards #ESTWA

Edward Stanford Award for Outstanding Contribution to Travel Writing We were delighted to award Jan Morris with the Edward Stanford Award for Outstanding Contribution to Travel Writing. This award recognises the great contribution Jan has given to the travel writing genre over many years.

One of the first books I was lucky enough to work on, having joined Faber in 2000, was Jan Morris’s brilliant Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere. When we published the following year it was announced, as per Jan’s wishes, as her ‘final’ book. Thankfully, it has proved to be something of a failed retirement.

Alongside a comprehensive republishing of her backlist, Jan has continued to produce new books for Faber, including the collection A Writer’s World: Travels 1950-2000, a new and expanded edition of her only novel, Hav, and In My Mind’s Eye, her first ever book of diary pieces, which will publish this autumn.

As someone who has traversed continents, genres, genders and decades, Jan’s ninetieth birthday was rightly celebrated last year by, among other things, Michael Palin’s documentary for the BBC and Ariel: A Literary Life by her longtime agent, and friend, Derek Johns.

Both tributes reflected on her rich and varied writing career. After serving in the Second World War as James Morris, Jan started to make a name as a journalist with an unerring ability to find a story. In 1953, for The Times, she scooped the world in reporting the conquest of Everest by Hillary and Tensing just in time for the Queen’s Coronation.

Working for the Guardian in1956, she

provided the first evidence that the AngloFrench forces invading Suez were acting in concert with Israel. She covered the Eichmann Trial of 1961; and wrote about American cities in the 1970s for Rolling Stone, a favourite of legendary editor Jann Wenner.

But it is as an author that Morris is best known today. Her Pax Britannica Trilogy, about the rise and fall of the British Empire, deftly refashioned conventional history into narrative. Conundrum, her extraordinary 1974 memoir, chronicled her journey to become Jan Morris. And although she herself professes to dislike the term ‘travel writer’, as an author of classic books on place, her works, including Venice and the aforementioned Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere, are exemplars of why the Daily Telegraph once wrote ‘wherever Morris goes, she brings a sharp, impassioned yet subtle eye, and an inexhaustible love of adventure… There are few better ways to see the world than in her company’.

Angus Cargill Editorial Director Faber & Faber

STANFORD DOLMAN Travel In partnership with

SHORTLIST THE EPIC CITY Kushanava Choudhury

Everything that could possibly be wrong with a city was wrong with Calcutta.

Sifting through the chaos for the stories that never make the papers, Kushanava Choudhury paints a soulful, compelling portrait of the everyday lives that make Calcutta. Written with humanity, wit and insight, The Epic City is an unforgettable portrait of an era, and a city which is a world unto itself.

RISINGTIDEFALLINGSTAR Philip Hoare

From the author of Leviathan, or, The Whale, comes a portrait of the subtle, inspired and demented ways in which we have come to terms with our watery planet.

Hoare goes in pursuit of human and animal stories of the sea: of people enchanted or driven to despair by the water, accompanied by whales and birds and seals, familiar spirits swimming and flying with the author on his meandering odyssey from suburbia into the unknown. Here humans challenge their landbound lives through art or words or performance or myth, through the animal and the elemental. And here they are forever drawn back to the water, forever lost and found on the infinite sea.

edwardstanfordawards.com

ISLANDER Patrick Barkham

The British Isles are an archipelago made up of two large islands and 6,289 smaller ones.

In this evocative and vividly observed book, Patrick Barkham explores some of the most beautiful landscapes in the British Isles as he travels to eversmaller islands in search of their special magic. Meeting all kinds of islanders, from nuns to puffins, from local legends to rare subspecies of vole, he seeks to discover what it is like to live on a small island, and what it means to be an islander.

THE RULE OF THE LAND Garrett Carr

In the wake of the EU referendum, the United Kingdom’s border with Ireland has gained greater significance: it is set to become the frontier with the European Union.

To uncover its secret landscape, with a troubled past and an uncertain future, Garrett Carr travelled Ireland’s border on foot and by canoe. This invisible line has hosted smugglers and kings, runaways, peacemakers, protestors and terrorists, revealing the tumult of a border, changing the way we look at nationhood, land and power. This book presents the borderland as a unique realm of its own, and asks what it holds for the future.

WHERE THE WILD WINDS ARE Nick Hunt

Nick Hunt sets off on an unlikely quest: to follow four of Europe’s winds across the continent – the roaring Helm, the freezing Bora, the ‘snow-eating’ Foehn and the Mistral, the wind of madness. These are journeys into wild winds, but also into wild landscapes and the people who inhabit them.

TRAVELS IN A DERVISH CLOAK Isambard Wilkinson Photography by Chev Wilkinson

By turns witty, evocative and elegiac, Travels in a Dervish Cloak is a rich, intimate and amusing portrait of Pakistan. As a foreign correspondent during the War on Terror, Wilkinson had three years to explore the country in all its exuberant complexity. Seeking the land behind the headlines, he sets out to discover the essence of a country convulsed by Islamist violence.

What of the old, mystical Pakistan has survived and what has been destroyed? His is a funny, hashishand whisky-scented travel book from the frontline, full of open-hearted delight and a poignant lust for life.

Book of the Year WINNER

BORDER Kapka Kassabova When Kapka Kassabova was a child, the borderzone between Bulgaria, Turkey and Greece was rumoured to be an easier crossing point into the West than the Berlin Wall so it swarmed with soldiers, spies and fugitives. Today, this densely forested landscape is no longer heavily militarised, but it is scarred by its past. Border is a sharply observed portrait of a little-known corner of Europe, and a fascinating meditation on the borderlines that exist between countries, between cultures, between people, and within each of us.

ADVENTURE Travel Book of the Award sponsored by

T R AV E L M AG A Z I N E

Presented to the author of a book of accessible non-fiction, telling of either an individual’s personal adventure or recounting a historical life or expedition. Open to memoir, biography, autobiography and history titles relating to travel and exploration.

EASTERN HORIZONS Levison Wood

Eastern Horizons is a true traveller’s tale in the tradition of the best of the genre, populated by a cast of eccentric characters; from mujahideen fighters to the Russian mafia. On his journey Levison meets some people who showed great hospitality, while others would rather have murdered him...

LAND OF THE DAWN-LIT MOUNTAINS Antonia Bolingbroke-Kent

A mountainous state in the far north-eastern corner of India, Arunachal Pradesh – meaning ‘land of the dawn-lit mountains’ – has remained uniquely isolated and unexplored by outsiders.

Antonia Bolingbroke-Kent sets out on a thrilling and dangerous adventure to chronicle this forgotten corner of Asia. In the process, she discovers a world and a way of living that are on the cusp of changing forever.

SHORTLIST REVOLUTIONARY RIDE Lois Pryce

When she finds a note on her motorcycle imploring her to visit Iran, Lois Pryce ignores all warnings and sets off alone on a 3,000-mile ride from Tabriz to Shiraz. Religious and hedonistic, practical and poetic, modern and rooted in tradition – this is real contemporary Iran.

edwardstanfordawards.com

THE LAND BEYOND Leon McCarron

From Jerusalem, through the West Bank and Jordan to the Sinai, Leon McCarron walked a thousand miles across the most contested landscapes in the world. The Land Beyond is a journey through the layers of history, culture and religion that have shaped the Holy Land. At its heart, it is the story of people, not politics, and of the connections that bridge even the greatest divides.

THE ORCHID HUNTER Leif Bersweden

In the summer after leaving school, a young botanist sets out to fulfil a childhood dream –­to find every species of orchid native to the British Isles. Battling the vagaries of the British climate in his clappedout car, Leif Bersweden has just a few months to do what no one has ever done before: to complete this quest within one growing season.

This study of the 52 native species is a fantastic gateway into the compendious world of orchids, and one that will open your eyes to the rare hidden delights to be found on the doorstep.

Year WINNER

SHARK DRUNK Morten Strøksnes, translated by Tiina Nunnally In the great depths surrounding the remote Lofoten islands in Norway lives the Greenland shark. Morten Strøksnes and his friend Hugo set out in pursuit of this enigmatic creature. Together, they tackle existential questions, experience the best and worst nature can throw at them, and explore the astonishing life teeming at the ocean’s depths.

Shark Drunk is, in part, the tale of two men in a very small boat on the trail of a very big fish. It is also a story of obsession, enchantment and adventure. Above all, it is a love song to the sea, in all its mystery, hardship, wonder and life-giving majesty.

FICTION, with a Sense of Place Award sponsored by

A novel from any genre within fiction (populist or literary) w ​ ith a highly developed and integral sense of a real location interwoven within the plot or narrative.

HERE COMES THE SUN Nicole DennisBenn

A remarkable debut about a group of women battling for independence as a maelstrom of change threatens their Jamaican village. Capturing the distinct rhythms of Jamaican life and dialect, Nicole Dennis-Benn pens a tender hymn to a world hidden among pristine beaches and the wide expanse of turquoise seas.

PACHINKO Min Jin Lee

A club-footed, cleft-lipped man marries a fifteen-year-old girl. The couple have one child, their beloved daughter Sunja.

When Sunja falls pregnant by a married yakuza, the family face ruin. But then a Christian minister offers a chance of salvation: a new life in Japan as his wife.

Following a man she barely knows to a hostile country where she has no friends and no home, Sunja’s salvation is just the beginning of her story.

SHORTLIST THE BUREAU OF SECOND CHANCES Sheena Kalayil

After more than thirty years in London, recentlywidowed Thomas Imbalil returns to India. He spends his first months in uncluttered isolation in his house in a small fishing village in Kerala.

But when he agrees to look after a friend’s business, he meets Rani, the young assistant, and discovers Rani is using the store to run an intriguing side-business. This discovery makes him restless, and reminds him of the loneliness he is feeling and which lies ahead of him. While he had envisaged a quiet re-acquaintance with his homeland, Thomas finds himself increasingly entangled with the lives of those around him.

edwardstanfordawards.com

THESE DIVIDING WALLS Fran Cooper

Grief-stricken Edward arrives in Paris hoping that a stay in a friend’s empty attic apartment will help him mend.

But the apartments below houses neighbours with secrets, and Edward soon finds himself entangled in their web. As the summer heat intensifies, so do tensions within and outside the building, leading to a city-wide wave of violence, and a reckoning within the walls of number 37.

TOWARDS MELLBREAK Marie-Elsa Bragg

After many generations, it is now, in 1971, Harold who runs Ard Farm. Out on the fells, he feels his father’s presence, and there is hope that he, his grandmother and his Uncle Joe will be able to take the farm forward and prosper. But their way of life is under threat. Farming is undergoing huge change and increasingly harmful intervention. As the years pass, and Harold has a son of his own, he strives to keep control of his land, to make a go of it, even while forces he cannot understand are gradually destroying him…

WINNER

HUMMINGBIRD Tristan Hughes In the northern Canadian wilderness, fifteen-year-old Zachary Tayler lives an isolated life with his father and the eccentric inhabitants of Sitting Down Lake. But then one summer the enigmatic and shape-shifting Eva Spiller arrives, and together they embark on a disconcerting and deeply moving journey of discovery through a landscape haunted by their pasts. A touching and beautifully written coming-ofage story about what in the end is lost and what can truly be found.

CHILDREN’S Travel Book of the Award sponsored by

Fiction or non-fiction title for pre-teens which inspires a love of travel, exploration and adventure.

A WORLD FULL OF ANIMAL STORIES Angela McAllister, illustrated by Aitch

Travel the world with 50 bestloved animal stories in this gorgeous collection of fascinating myths, fables and legends. This beautifullyillustrated anthology combines favourites such as The Three Little Pigs and The Ugly Duckling with diverse, indigenous tales from around the world: this sumptuous book is one to treasure.

HERE WE ARE Oliver Jeffers

Inspired by the birth of his son, Harland, Here We Are is a moving and thoughtprovoking book in which Oliver Jeffers takes the reader on a journey through a series of heartfelt notes introducing planet Earth. Be it a complex view of our planet’s terrain (bumpy, sharp, wet), a deep look at our place in space (you are here), or a guide to all of the animals (they can’t speak, though that’s no reason not to be nice to them), Oliver’s signature wit and humour combine with a value system of kindness and tolerance to create a must-have book for parents.

SHORTLIST THE EARTH BOOK Jonathan Litton, illustrated

by Thomas Hegbrook

In this enormous book about the Earth there is so much to explore. Readers can marvel at the physical planet, travel back in time to primordial Earth, explore all branches of the tree of life, discover habitats from oceans to deserts, learn how the weather works and take a tour of the human planet from the Maasai steppe to Manhattan.

edwardstanfordawards.com

THE PICTURE ATLAS Simon Holland, illustrated by Jill Calder

Explore the world by looking not only at borders, mountains, rivers, seas and oceans, but by discovering the natural wonders of the world, historical artefacts, amazing animals, fascinating cultures and much much more. With stunning illustrations from the incredible Jill Calder, The Picture Atlas is quite unlike anything you’ve seen before.

WHAT WE SEE IN THE STARS Kelsey Oseid

Combing art, mythology and science, What We See in the Stars is a tour of the night sky through more than 100 magical pieces of original art, all accompanied by text that weaves related legends and lore with scientific facts. A sumptuous beginner’s guide to astronomy and the night sky.

Year WINNER

THE EXPLORER Katherine Rundell, illustrated by Hannah Horn From his seat in the tiny aeroplane, Fred watches as the mysteries of the Amazon jungle pass by below him. He has always dreamed of becoming an explorer, of making history and of reading his name amongst the lists of great discoveries. If only he could land and look about him.

As the plane crashes into the canopy, Fred is suddenly left without a choice. He and the three other children may be alive, but the jungle is a vast, untamed place. With no hope of rescue, the chance of getting home feels impossibly small.

Except, it seems, someone has been there before them‌

PHOTOGRAPHY & ILLUSTRATED Award sponsored by

A book of photography, illustrations, maps or infographics relating to travel, adventure or world cultures aimed at the adult market and with their focus on either one place or the entire World, with limited accompanying text.

ATLAS OF UNTAMED PLACES Chris Fitch

Chris Fitch takes you on a journey through the world’s most wild places, visiting immensely diverse floral kingdoms, remote jungles abundant with exotic birds, and both freezing cold and scorching hot inhospitable environments. Travel to the extreme and the incredible: lightning inducing lakes, acidic mud baths, and maneating tiger kingdoms.

SHORTLIST EXPLORER’S ATLAS Piotr Wilkowiecki & Michał Gaszyński

Discover the most intriguing, fascinating and extraordinary facts about the world in this lavishly illustrated, large format atlas. Uncover hidden secrets on every page – from world cultures to history, the economy to nature, geography to sporting events and following the trails of great explorers. Plan your next adventure, or revisit where you have been already – Explorer’s Atlas has been created for travellers, map lovers and adventurers of any age.

edwardstanfordawards.com

LONELY PLANET’S ATLAS OF ADVENTURE Lonely Planet

Don’t just walk on the wild side, but run, cycle, canoe, surf and even parachute.

This round-the-world encyclopedia showcases the great outdoors and the adrenaline-fuelled, action-packed and hair-raising ways to explore it.

BRITAIN’S 100 BEST RAILWAY STATIONS Simon Jenkins

Simon Jenkins has travelled the length and breadth of Great Britain to select his hundred best. The foremost expert on our national heritage deftly reveals the history, geography, design and significance of each of these glories.

Beautifully illustrated with colour photographs throughout, this joyous exploration of our social history shows the station’s role in the national imagination; champions the engineers, architects and rival companies that made them possible; and tells the story behind the triumphs and follies of these very British creations. These are the marvellous, often undersung places that link our nation, celebrated like never before.

PILGRIMAGE Derry Brabbs

Ten historic pilgrim routes of Western Europe, inspiration for today’s longdistance walker.

Astounding photographs with text describing the history and key features of each route, as well as brief details of the distances and the number of days it takes to walk. This book also includes websites to help plan your journey.

Travel Book of the Year WINNER

LONDONIST MAPPED AA Publishing Londonist is about London and everything that happens in it – and now it’s mapped. The city at your fingertips, brought to life by an eclectic group of illustrators.

Whether you’re looking for something new to do around Brick Lane, or wondering about London’s bridges and how they got their names, Londonist’s team of contributors know the city and its history inside out.

Appealing to map addicts, trivia junkies and Londoners-abouttown alike, this new compendium showcases hand-drawn maps accompanied by some of the best of their writing.

TRAVEL COOKERY Book of the Award sponsored by

M

A

G

A

Z

I

N

ANDINA: THE HEART OF PERUVIAN FOOD Martin Morales, photography by David Loftus

E

Cookbook or non-fiction food writing focussed on a particular national cuisine or telling of food related exploration/travel. Must capture a sense of the place’s identity and culture.

SHORTLIST MY VEGAN TRAVELS Jackie Kearney

A food-lover with wanderlust, Jackie Kearney became a MasterChef UK finalist in 2011 thanks to her creative approach to globally inspired vegan and vegetarian cooking. However, what she loves to cook most are those comfort food classics that satisfy any appetite – and in this collection of 75 indulgent recipes, she shows how easy it is to do that as part of a plant-based diet.

edwardstanfordawards.com

Featuring over 110 delicious and unfussy recipes accompanied by fascinating stories, dazzling photography and beautiful paintings, Andina is the first ever book to capture the food and scenery of the Andes and the spirit of its people and traditions.

For the last 15 years, Martin has travelled throughout the Peruvian Andes to collect simple, traditional recipes, magical stories and culinary inspiration. With dishes dating back thousands of years, alongside new creations, Andina presents authentic, simple to cook, nutritious all-day and all-year-round food made with seasonal ingredients.

THE PALESTINIAN TABLE Reem Kassis

The Palestinian Table weaves together a tapestry of personal anecdotes, local traditions, and historical context, sharing with home cooks a collection of nearly 150 delicious, easy-to follow recipes that range from simple breakfasts and quick-to-prepare salads to celebratory dishes fit for a feast – giving rare insight into the heart of the Palestinian family kitchen.

CHAI, CHAAT & CHUTNEY Chetna Makan, photography

by Nassima Rothacker & Keith James; illustrated by Amber Badger & Ella McLean

In Chai, Chaat & Chutney, Chetna has taken inspiration from the street and created delicious recipes that are simple to cook at home. The result is a completely fresh take on Indian cuisine – try Tamarind Stuffed Chillis and Sticky Bombay Chicken from the South or let your senses venture to the North for Pani Puri and Cardamom & Pistachio Kulfi.

ZOE’S GHANA KITCHEN Zoe Adjonyoh, photography

by Nassima Rothacker

Rising star in food Zoe Adjonyoh brings us a stunning debut cookbook based on her hugely successful pop-up, Zoe’s Ghana Kitchen. Ghanian food is always fun, always relaxed and always tasty. This is contemporary African food, re-mixed for the modern kitchen. This is African food for everyone.

Year WINNER

BART’S FISH TALES Bart van Olphen, photography by David Loftus In this unique and comprehensive book Bart van Olphen travels around the world to visit the most sustainable fisheries.

Along with the world-renowned photographer David Loftus, Bart recounts his journey where he lived, fished and cooked with the men, women and children of the world’s most sustainable fishing communities.

OUTSTANDING GENERAL TRAVEL Award sponsored by

An individual title of innovative and/or literary merit from the sub-genres of: Natural History, Biography, History, Geography and Transport titles, that is relevant, useful or inspiring to travellers (and not covered by the other categories).

GRAPE, OLIVE, PIG: DEEP TRAVELS THROUGH SPAIN’S FOOD CULTURE Matt Goulding

Take a journey through the delectable and sensuous culture and cuisine of Spain in this beautifully illustrated fooddriven travel guide. This book reveals hidden gems and enduring delicacies from across this extraordinary country, contextualising each meal with the stories behind the food in a cultural narrative complemented by stunning colour photography. ​ Whether you’ve visited Spain or have only dreamed of its tapas bars, Grape, Olive, Pig will wake your imagination, sharpen your appetite and capture your heart.

SHORTLIST SMALL ISLAND BY LITTLE TRAIN Chris Arnot & AA Publishing

From stalwart little locomotives of topographic necessity, to the maverick engines of one man’s whimsy, Britain’s narrow-gauge steam trains run on tracks a world apart from its regimented mainlines. In Small Island by Little Train, eccentricity enthusiast Chris Arnot sets out to discover their stories. Far more than mere relics of the nation’s industrial past, or battered veterans of wartime Britain, these are also stories of epic feats of preservation, volunteerism, tourism, and local history. They are an exploration of idiosyncrasy, enthusiasm and eccentricity. Or, to put it another way, a tale of Britishness.

edwardstanfordawards.com

THE ALPS Stephen O’Shea

For centuries the Alps have been witness to the march of armies, the flow of pilgrims and Crusaders, the feats of mountaineers, and the dreams of engineers. In The Alps, Stephen O’Shea (“a graceful and passionate writer” — Washington Post) takes readers up and down these majestic mountains. Journeying through their 500-mile arc across France, Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Germany, Austria, and Slovenia, he explores the reality behind historic events and reveals how the Alps have profoundly influenced culture and society.

ISLAND PEOPLE: THE CARIBBEAN AND THE WORLD Joshua JellySchapiro

Clustered together in azure-blue waters are a collection of little islands whose culture, history and people have touched every corner of the world.

These islands are so much more than gloss, white sand and palm trees, they form a region rich in colour, beauty and strength, home to some of the world’s most famous artists, activists, writers, musicians and sportsmen.

We hear the voices of the Caribbean people, explore their home and learn what it means to them, and the world.

This fascinating and absorbing book strips away the fantasy and myth to expose the real islands, and the real people, that make up the Caribbean.

THE HIDDEN WAYS Alistair Moffat

In The Hidden Ways, Alistair Moffat traverses the lost paths of Scotland. Roman roads tramped by armies, warpaths and pilgrim routes, drove roads and rail roads, turnpikes and sea roads, he traces the arteries through which our nation’s lifeblood has flowed in a bid to understand how our history has left its mark upon our landscape.

Moffat’s travels reveal not only the searing beauty and magic of the Scottish landscape, but open up a different sort of history, a new way of understanding our past. Retracing the forgotten paths, he charts a powerful, surprising and moving history of Scotland through the unremembered lives who have moved through it.

THEMED Book of the Year WINNER

THE AMAZING STORY OF THE MAN WHO CYCLED FROM INDIA TO EUROPE FOR LOVE Per J Andersson, translated by Anna Holmwood This is the remarkable true story of how love and courage led an Indian street artist known locally as PK to overcome extreme poverty, caste prejudice and adversity – as well as a 7,000mile, adventure-filled journey across continents and cultures – to be with the woman he loved.

Travel Blog of the Year Lonely Planet lives and breathes travel. They created Pathfinders to evolve their community into an ever-expanding network of travel experts.

If you are a talented travel blogger, photographer, videographer or social media wizard there's a place for you with Lonely Planet Pathfinders. www.lonelyplanet.com/pathfinders

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

Blogs and social media play an increasing role in the travel planning process. Real stories from real people - people with a passion for exploring the world - are an endless source of inspiration for travellers.

Lonely Planet Pathfinders teamed up with the Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards to find the Travel Blog of the Year - a creative, engaging and regularly updated, original blog.

THE WINNER

Dave McClane manvsglobe.com

The layout and design of Dave's blog is slick. We love his photography and his writing style draws the reader in effortlessly. Covering a wide range of interesting topics, this blog will have you quickly lost in travel envy - and frantically adding destinations and experiences to your bucket list.

Julianna Barnaby thediscoveriesof.com

Julianna's blog has something everyone can relate to and some very useful articles. She even has her own set of ebook travel guides - we'd better watch out!

Andy Browning andyexplores.com

Andy's blog is realistic and funny. His articles cover a wide variety of fascinating places and activities, with some great travel anecdotes.

Bradt Travel Guides New Travel Writer of the Year Founded in 1974, Bradt Travel Guides is now the largest independent guidebook publisher in the UK, with over 200 titles in print, over half of which have no direct competition from other guidebook lists. www.bradtguides.com Bradt Travel Guides has long been committed to the promotion of travel-writing talent. It has held a travel-writing competition annually for over two decades, and this year partnered with the Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards for a second time to search for the New Travel Writer of the Year.

Open only to unpublished writers, the competition asked entrants to write a 600-800 word piece relating to the theme Lost in Translation. The winning prize includes a holiday for two to Swedish Lapland provided

by Discover The World, a commission from Timeless Travels magazine, and a place on the Bradt Travel Writing Seminar (run in conjunction with Travellers’ Tales).

Read all three finalists’ stories at: www.bradtguides.com/travelwriting

WINNER Alan Packer

Alan grew up in Yorkshire then moved to Aberdeen where he studied English Literature and Mathematics.

Since 2000 he has advised on the development of local government in transitional countries, particularly in Kosovo. There, he and his wife Mary share a home with a local family, living and experiencing village life.

A project to renovate a traditional house in Kosovo led writer-friends to encourage him to set down stories for a wider audience; The Village Sledge Run is a start.

RUNNERS UP Joanna Griffin

Joanna is a physiotherapist living and working in Gloucestershire. She has an interest in feature journalism and in 2013 was a finalist in the Guardian International Development Journalism Competition. She has since focused on narrative travel writing and has been shortlisted and commended in a number of travel writing competitions. In 2016 she won the weekly Telegraph ‘Just Back’ and the Bradt Guides’ ‘My Perfect Day’ competitions.

Chris Walsh

Chris has spent nearly forty years wandering the planet. For some of those four decades he has been involved in the travel industry but for the most part has been in the field of Education.

Writing has always remained a serious interest for him but, in recent years, has had to compete with another love – photography. He has lived for extended periods in nine countries and explored over fifty nations or territories during times of peace and of conflict.

With special thanks to

Thanks to our sponsors and partners:

M

A

G

A

Z

I

N

T R AV E L M AG A Z I N E

E

PARTNERSHIPS TO PROTECT THE WILD

ABTA No.V1464