Launched in 2015, the Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards (ESTWA) seek to celebrate the best travel writing, and travel writers, in the world. Many figures from the travel writing genre gathered at Stanfords London on 3rd March to celebrate.
Vivien Godfrey, Chairman and Chief Executive of Stanfords, said “Travel writing has become even more important in the past two years. Despite not been able to travel as much as we’d like, we’ve been able to see the world through books and are delighted to be able to come together to celebrate the wonderful writing that has flourished out of these challenging times.”
In total 33 books made the shortlists, divided into eight awards categories with winners being both debut authors and award-winning writers. The judging panels included authors Lois Pryce, Jini Reddy, Julia Wheeler, Lucy Popescu, Nicholas Jubber, the MD of Trip Fiction website Tina Hartas, Travel Writing World Podcast’s Jeremy Bassetti, Stanfords booksellers and members of the Stanfords senior team.
Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year, in association with the Authors’ Club was awarded to Colin Thubron with The Amur River chronicling the 3,000-mile long journey from the Amur’s secret source to its giant mouth that Thubron undertook in his 80th year. The judges said; “The Amur River sees Colin Thubron on classic form – thoughtful, reflective and as resilient as ever. The writing is elegant, nuanced and empathetic. It glistens like the play of light on the river itself. Few can write, and travel for that matter, like Thubron.”
The Fiction, with a Sense of Place award went to The Country of Others by Leïla Slimani, translated by Sam Taylor. The judges were impressed by how Slimani not only created sense of place through describing the features and landscapes of urban and rural Morocco, but also through a deep engagement with its history. Place, its physicality and temporality, shapes the lives of the novel’s characters, driving the immersive plot forward to its ambiguous conclusion.
In the Children’s Travel Book of the Year, Zillah Bethell won the award for The Shark Caller, set on the shores of Papua New Guinea. The judges were impressed with its magical story telling, beautiful language, the description of the island, and the calming atmospheric feeling it gave. They found it bittersweet and really beautiful.
Picking up the highly coveted Food and Drink Travel Book of the Year award was Yasmin Khan with Ripe Figs. The judges thought this was a really important book containing so much more than recipes. It’s also a travelogue, a historic recording and celebration of the cuisine of Greece, Turkey and Cyprus.
Stuart Dunn was awarded the Photography Travel Book of the Year for his book Only Us. The judges really felt like they had been taken on a journey around the world with the stunning photographic skills in this book. They felt their eyes had been opened to a multitude of cultures around the world.
Illustrated Travel Book of the Year was won by Matt Brown, Rhys B. Davies and Mike Hall for their visually stunning Atlas of Imagined Places. The judges felt that book was a very fitting winner when most of our recent travel has had to be imaginary. The research that has gone into this book is seriously impressive and the imagined geography and topography is something that can be looked at again and again.
Ghar Ghosts by Ruth Cox received the Bradt Travel Guides New Travel Writer of the Year. The freelance educational materials editor fought off tough competition in this popular unpublished award category.
The travel writer and founder of Bradt Travel Guides Hilary Bradt was honoured with the Edward Stanford Award for Outstanding Contribution to Travel Writing.
In the mid 1970s we were presented with a little yellow booklet called ‘Backpacking in Peru and Bolivia’, nothing like it had ever been seen before and we immediately bought some to sell for £1.50. A backpacking guide to Africa followed (that one went up to £2) and from that moment on, Bradt Guides have always been on our shelves here at Stanfords.
For the first 25 years Hilary Bradt combined writing guide books and running the company with leading adventure and natural history tours to South America, Africa and Madagascar.
Her in-depth knowledge of these places has brought her lecture engagements at the Royal Geographical Society, the Smithsonian Institution and on board expedition cruise ships, as well as numerous commissions for travel articles.
It seems the only thing Hilary is not good at is retiring. She remains a director of Bradt today in her, I hope she won’t mind us mentioning, 81st year.
In 2008, Hilary was awarded an MBE for services to the tourist industry and to charity, and the following year received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the British Guild of Travel Writers. In 2018 she was granted the high honour of Officier de l’Ordre de Madagascar – the Malagasy equivalent of an OBE – in recognition of four decades’ pioneering promotion of the country’s tourism potential. In 2019 she received the Special Contribution Award at the Travel Media Awards.
Her most recent book A Connemara Journey chronicles her journey through Ireland on horseback in the 1980s was published for the first time in a single volume last year.
Previous recipients of this award include Bill Bryson, Michael Palin, Jan Morris, Colin Thubron and Paul Theroux. Last year’s recipient of this award, Dervla Murphy, sent this message to Hilary from her home in Ireland;
“When we first met in an Andean hut in 1979 I had one of those instant reactions- a kindred spirit. During the subsequent decades Hilary, as both a traveller and writer, has provided invaluable guidance and encouragement to generations of young travellers uninterested in beaten tracks. Congratulations of your award Hilary.”
Each winner was presented with a hand-made Lander and May globe featuring a design produced exclusively for the ESTWAs.
To view the shortlists visit: stanfords.co.uk/edward-stanford-travel-writing-awards