It’s been a while since our last interview with Simon Calder, so we caught up with the intrepid travel editor and broadcaster while he was shooting his latest travel film in our Covent Garden store.
What are you working on at the moment?
We’re filming for the One Show, we’re asking the question, do we really need British Airways in a time when the traveller has never had so many opportunities and where BA is going through some difficult time? We’re basically saying, well, do we still need you?
How does Stanfords play a role in your filming?
Stanfords, I always think, is the perfect backdrop for any travel film. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve been lucky enough to film here. Wherever you’re filming about, it’s great to start here. You’ve got so much colour, so much imagery, so many globes, and basically I just find maps incredibly inspiring. I hope that that gets transmitted so that people will catch a glimpse of fantastic maps and guidebooks, atlases and globes and think, yes! This is what travel is all about!
Where are you going this year?
This year I’ve been lucky enough so far to go to Egypt, to Singapore, to France, to Germany. I’m looking forward to a lot more, well I call them working assignments, but they’re really just holidays – so I’ll be heading off to Sweden quite soon and to Norway, then hopefully later in the year I’m going to the Baltic Republics, maybe across to Canada, and anywhere else that fortune makes me lucky enough to go to.
What has surprised you in a recent destination?
I think what people will find most surprising is the price of everything. The sterling collapse has been awful. However, I think the Brits are actually quite resilient, we’ve got used to the idea. And it actually, arbitrarily, makes guidebooks more important than ever, because it enables you to understand how to live cheaply. So I hope that the collapse of sterling is mirrored by a boost for guidebook sales.
Any good travel literature you’ve read recently?
Look, I get on an aeroplane or onto a train and I just want to find out everything about the destination. So I’m very strict with myself, I’m much more likely to be reading a couple of different guidebooks to get the flavour of a place than to be reading travel literature. But I’ve got a great long list in my head.
Author: Rachel Ricks