Jude Brosnan

Book of the Month: Four Points of the Compass by Jerry Brotton

Our Book of the Month for September is Four Points of the Compass: The Unexpected History of Direction by Jerry Brotton.

A sparkling exploration of the four cardinal directions, by the acclaimed author of A History of the World in 12 Maps.

North, south, east and west: almost all societies use the four cardinal directions to orientate themselves, to understand who they are by projecting where they are. For millennia, these four directions have been the foundation of our navigation and exploration and are central to the imaginative, moral and political geography of virtually every culture in the world. Yet they are far more subjective, various and contradictory than we might realise.

Author Talk: London’s Street Trees by Paul Wood

Last night was a full house at Stanfords as Paul Wood returned to talk about the expanded and revised third edition of his bestselling book, London’s Street Trees: A Field Guide to the Urban Forest .

Top Five Places to Volunteer this year

-by Carol Donaldson

In celebration of the publication of my book The Volunteers: A memoir of Conservation, Companionship and Community (Summersdale 2024) I would like to invite you to experience the joys of volunteering for yourself by exploring my list of the five best organisations to volunteer for in the UK.

TCV The Conservation Volunteers

TCV offered me my first every professional conservation job and have long been the standard bearers for volunteering. They were also ahead of their time at being an inclusive organisation. TCV run hundreds of volunteer projects across the UK including the Green Gym where you can get fit and make friends while doing anything from edible gardening to dry stone walling

2. The RSPB

Not just for birders. When I was 21 I spent two life changing weeks guarding an osprey nests from egg collectors on the RSPB’s Loch Garten reserve. I came away knowing I wanted a career in conservation. The RSPB are one of the few organisations to still offer short term residential volunteer opportunities. You could find yourself at the tip of Kent wardening the RSPB Dungeness reserve or monitoring bittern in the reedbeds at Blacktoft Sands.

New Fiction we’ve been reading

Here are six new titles that we have been enjoying during our summer holidays:

Time of the Flies

by Claudia Piñeiro, translated by Frances Riddle

£12.99

Set in: Argentina

Fifteen years after killing her husband’s lover, Ines is fresh out of prison and trying to put together a new life. Her old friend Manca is out now too, and they’ve started a business – FFF, or Females, Fumigation, and Flies – dedicated to pest control and private investigation, by women, for women. But Senora Bonar, one of their clients, wants Ines to do more than kill bugs – she wants her expertise, and her criminal past, to help her kill her husband’s lover, too.

This is Pineiro at her wry, earthy best, alive to all the ways we shape ourselves to be understandable, to be understood, by family and love and other hostile forces.

#MapMonday: 10 maps we are talking about. Paris edition

10 maps we are talking about. Paris edition

With the Olympics and Paralympics being set in Paris, we’ve been getting lots of enquires about the different kinds of maps we stock. Here are 10 maps on our shelves that we’ve been talking recently:

Stanford’s Map of the Environs of Paris (1870)

£14.99

First up, it’s our August Map of the Month from our Edward Stanford Cartographic Collection archive.

It is dated September 1st 1870 which is just a couple months after the Franco-Prussian War began. The Eiffel Tower wasn’t erected for another nineteen years so you can see the empty space at the Chaps de Mars where the iconic landmark now stands.

It’s fascinating to compare this map with modern maps of Paris. This is definitely one of our most beautiful maps and will appeal to anyone interested in this great city.

Paris Metro Architecture & Design Map

£9

Curated by transport design historian and broadcaster Mark Ovenden, with original photography by Nigel Green, this two-sided cartographic guide is an original and fascinating insight into architecture and graphic design for transport lovers, students of design and anyone interested in the history of Paris. The guide includes a geographical Metro map with featured stations marked, with corresponding photography and details on the reverse along with tips for where to find unique and unusual signage, ornamentation, architecture and more.

Map of the Month: 1870 Stanford’s Map of the Environs of Paris

Our Map of the Month for August is the 1870 Stanford’s Map of the Environs of Paris.

With all eyes on Paris right now, we thought it was a good time to look at this map from our Edward Stanford Cartographic Collection archive. The title reads; ‘Stanford’s map of the environs of Paris shewing the fortifications.’ You can see the fortifications in pink and notice how they form a ring around the old city wall.

It is dated September 1st 1870 which is just a couple months after the Franco-Prussian War began.

The Eiffel Tower wasn’t erected for another nineteen years. In this close-up, you can see the space at the Chaps de Mars where the iconic landmark now stands.

5 Maps We’re Talking About

Here are five maps that have caught our attention recently at Stanfords:

National Parks of Europe Greenground Map

£24.99

NEW

From the graphic designer and map maker that brought you our Map of the Month back in May; The London Greenground Map, Helen Ilus has just launched this new minimalist map that aims to connect Europe’s National Parks with official long-distance walking and cycling routes. With 400+ National Parks, 12 official E-paths and 17 EuroVelo routes, the map is a useful tool for planning nature adventures across Europe either on foot or on bike. The visually stylised map makes the connections between National Parks easy to see and helps with the planning as well as being an inspiring wall map between the adventures.

An Opinionated Guide to London Bookshops

We are honoured to be featured in the new book from Hoxton Mini Press. In An Opinionated Guide to London Bookshops with text by Sonya Barber and James Manning and photography by Ellen Christina Hancock, you will find a double page spread on Stanfords and 63 other places, including many of our fellow indie bookshop friends. It also contains an introduction and a ‘best for….’.

We think this is a perfect book to arrange a bookshop tour with. If you start at Stanfords you can also buy one of our London maps and plot your bookshop route around London.

London Bookshops is available now from Stanfords for £10.95

Book Launch: Sunbirds by Penelope Slocombe

Last night we hosted the launch of Sunbirds by Penelope Slocombe published by John Murray Press.

This is a perfect summer read if you are looking for some fiction with a sense of place. Set in the Himalayas.

Children’s Book of the Month: Atlas of Cats

Our Children’s Book of the Month for August 2024 is the Lonely Planet Atlas of Cats by Frances Evans, illustrated by Kelsey Heaton.

Embark on a purr-fectly delightful journey with this fully illustrated guide that’s packed with fun facts about cats from around the world. Large continent maps show the origin of over 100 weird and wonderful breeds like the Sokoke from Africa – the rarest variety of domestic cat in the world – plus discover ancient cats, wild cats, record- breaking cats, and their super senses.