Our Children’s Book of the Month for July is What a Wonderful Wordby Nicola Edwards, illustrated by Luisa Uribe.
Have you ever wished there was a word for friends who are like family to you, or for the way you hesitate when you’ve forgotten someone’s name? Did you know there was a special word for the distance a reindeer can travel before needing the toilet? Or for when you search for something in the water using only your feet?
In her late twenties, celebrated poet Jen Hadfield moved to the Shetland archipelago to make her life anew. A scattering of islands at the northernmost point of the United Kingdom, frequently cut off from the mainland by storms, Shetland is a place of Vikings and myths, of ancient languages and old customs, of breathtaking landscapes and violent weather. It has long fascinated travellers seeking the edge of the world.
You don’t have to be a backpacker on a gap year setting out to ‘find yourself’ to enjoy an Interrailing adventure in Europe. You’re still allowed a bit of self-discovery along the tracks later in life. Nothing wrong with that. Just hop on board and follow the classic route of the inaugural Orient Express in 1883 from Paris to Istanbul along the tracks taken by the great and the good during train travel’s golden age
THIS book began on a park bench in London’s Soho, not far from Stanfords’ excellent Covent Garden shop – in the company of an old university pal.
We were drinking Red Stripe lagers and discussing this and that: the state of the world (not so great), Britain (ditto), modern life in general and how we were faring with it (at the beck and call of emails and various other little electronic messages).
We had both just passed 50. We both felt the urge to ‘break free’ for a while. Circumstances (and tolerant people around us) would allow us to do this. We both enjoyed trains. We both loved Europe. And there they were: Europe’s train tracks, lying across the Channel waiting to be explored; cheaply, thanks to an Interrail promotion.
Last week we hosted the launch of our June Book of the Month Slow Trains to Istanbul by Tom Chesshyre.
From London via Paris, Naples, Nuremberg, the Swiss Alps, Budapest, Athens and into the furthest corners of Eastern Europe across Romania and Bulgaria, join Tom Chesshyre on his fascinating journey to Istanbul and back
Ever dreamt of dropping everything and adventuring cross-country to the edge of Asia? That’s just what rail enthusiast Tom Chesshyre did, hitting the tracks for a 4,570-mile adventure on 55 rides, shadowing the old Orient Express route.
Interrailing was once the realm of young backpackers setting off to “find themselves” – and for many, it still is. But it’s also a joyful and eco-friendly twenty-first century adventure that’s open to us all, no matter our age or agenda. Dodging striking train drivers in Germany, getting stuck by the Bulgarian-Greek border, and negotiating tricky passport officials in Turkey is all part of the fun in this illuminating and meandering journey around Europe.
Our Children’s Book of the Month for June is Flags of the World by Collins Kids.
We are all massive vexillophiles here at Stanfords and for most of us our first memories of admiring flags was while watching the Olympics as children. With Paris hosting the Olympics this summer, now is the perfect time for us to all brush up on our flag knowledge.
Can you name every flag in the world?
Discover the design and colours of every single country’s flag – and learn lots of fascinating facts and stats about continents, countries, and capitals along the way.
Explore the world of fantastic flags from A to Z. Flags are listed alphabetically by country name for easy reference – from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe and every country in-between. Features completely up-to-date statistics and accurate flags.
Challenge yourself with flag-tastic quizzes. Which is the oldest flag in the world? Which is the only country that doesn’t have a rectangular flag? And which flag is the most colourful?
Perfect for entertaining kids on the go. This mini paperback makes an ideal gift for children aged 7+ who are curious about other countries, their capitals, and their flags.
From London via Paris, Naples, Nuremberg, the Swiss Alps, Budapest, Athens and into the furthest corners of Eastern Europe across Romania and Bulgaria, join Tom Chesshyre on his fascinating journey to Istanbul and back.
Ever dreamt of dropping everything and adventuring cross-country to the edge of Asia? That’s just what Tom Chesshyre did, hitting the tracks for a 4,570-mile adventure on 55 rides, shadowing the old Orient Express route.
Interrailing was once the realm of young backpackers setting off to “find themselves” – and for many, it still is. But it’s also a joyful and eco-friendly twenty-first century adventure that’s open to us all, no matter our age or agenda. Dodging striking train drivers in Germany, getting stuck by the Bulgarian-Greek border, and negotiating tricky passport officials in Turkey is all part of the fun in this illuminating and meandering journey around Europe.
Europe by rail awaits. The freedom of the lines awaits. Why not hop on board?
Author Biography
Tom Chesshyre is the author of eleven travel books, the latest telling the story of a 379-mile hike around the Lake District. He has travelled 40,000 miles around the world for his train books; most recently for Slow Trains Around Spain: A 3,000-Mile Adventure on 52 Rides. His book writing has also taken him across North Africa after the Arab Spring, round the “dark side” of the Maldives on cargo ships, along the length of the River Thames and on a journey through “unsung Britain” (in To Hull and Back). He worked on the travel desk of The Times for 21 years and is now freelance, contributing to The Critic and New European magazines. He lives in London.
Our Children’s Book of the Month is Children of the World by Nicola Edwards, illustrated by Andrea Stegmaier.
Discover what daily life is like for children across the world as we explore everything from food to family, and learn how to greet new friends in lots of different languages.
See where it’s polite to slurp your food and bad manners to give the thumbs up, and find out where you might travel to school by cable car or sleep on an oven bed at night!
People have been drawing lines on maps for as long as there have been maps to draw on. Sometimes rooted in physical geography, sometimes entirely arbitrary, these lines might often have looked very different if a war or treaty or the decisions of a handful of tired Europeans had gone a different way. By telling the stories of these borders, we can learn a lot about how political identities are shaped, why the world looks the way it does – and about the scale of human folly.
From the Roman attempts to define the boundaries of civilisation, to the secret British-French agreement to carve up the Ottoman Empire during the First World War, to the reason why landlocked Bolivia still maintains a navy, this is a fascinating, witty and surprising look at the history of the world told through its borders.
‘Fascinating and hugely entertaining’ – Marina Hyde
‘By turns surprising, funny, bleak, ridiculous, or all four of those at once’ – Gideon Defoe.
Our Children’s Book of the Month for April is The Royal Jewel Plot from award-winning author A.M. Howell.
Alice and Sonny investigate a stolen jewel, in this instalment of the bestselling Mysteries at Sea series.
Alice and Sonny are excited for their summer trip, sailing on the luxurious yacht the Lady Rose. They’re even more excited when they find out the King of England is going to be on board too.
In Taking the Risk Hilary Bradt looks back on 50 years of escapades, surprises, mishaps, disasters… and success. From her first solo trip aged three (on a British beach), she revisits six decades of hitchhiking, feeding the travel habit by working abroad, and starting a successful travel publishing company where knowing nothing proved a surprising asset.
