Ann Morgan – Stanfords Blog

Why We Travel with Phoebe Smith & Ash Bhardwaj// 2025 Stanfords Travel Writers Festival

What are the benefits of travelling, and why do so many of us feel compelled to do it? Ash Bhardwaj, author of Why We Travel, is an award-winning journalist and broadcaster, whose work explores the intersection of travel, current affairs and human behaviour. Phoebe Smith is an award-winning adventurer, presenter, broadcaster, author and photographer. She hosts the Wander Woman Podcast and is Sleep Storyteller-in-Residence at Calm.com.

Together they talk to Ann Morgan about the transformative power of travel.

This is a live recording from Destinations: The Holiday & Travel Show at Olympia, London on 31 January 2025.

John Blashford-Snell in Conversation: Stanfords Travel Writers Festival 2024

From Destinations: The Holiday & Travel Show in London’s Olympia, The Stanfords Travel Writers Festival welcomes Colonel John Blashford-Snell, one of the country’s most eminent and seasoned explorers.

His name is known globally for his daring adventures and intrepid journeys of discovery. Now, well into his eighties (and still planning future trips), he talks to Ann Morgan, telling tales from Africa, Asia and the Americas, about some of the 100 or so expeditions he has led in pursuit of archaeological, anthropological, botanical, biological and zoological objectives.

‘Pages From My Passport’ with Amelia Dalton: Stanfords Travel Writers Festival 2024

From Destinations: The Holiday & Travel Show in London’s Olympia, The Stanfords Travel Writers Festival welcomes author and ‘travel tailor’ Amelia Dalton. She talks to Ann Morgan about her book Pages From My Passport and her many adventures.

Amelia Dalton, fresh from touring the Scottish islands, takes on the world and sets up exclusive, expedition holidays in remote places for a new cruise ship. She scopes out remote archipelagos, deserted beaches and tiny local museums from Norway to Madagascar, by campervan, taxi, boat and small plane. While planning her itineraries, she explores inaccessible islands, survives a hotel fire, a bomb in a palace, being stung by a scorpion and thrown into jail. Meanwhile, she’s being wooed from afar by a mysterious stranger who turns up in the most unexpected places.

‘The Story of Scandinavia’ with Stein Ringen: Stanfords Travel Writers Festival 2024

From Destinations: The Holiday & Travel Show in London’s Olympia, The Stanfords Travel Writers Festival welcomes Norwegian sociologist and political scientist Stein Ringen. He talks to Ann Morgan about his book The Story of Scandinavia.

In The Story of Scandinavia, Stein Ringen chronicles more than 1,200 years of drama, economic rise and fall, crises, kings and queens, war, peace, language and culture.