Stanfords Travel Writers Festival – Page 2

Victoria Hislop in Conversation: Stanfords Travel Writers Festival

From Destinations: The Holiday & Travel Show in London’s Olympia, The Stanfords Travel Writers Festival welcomes the international bestselling author Victoria Hislop. Victoria divides her time between England and Greece and in 2020, was granted honorary citizenship by the President. She talks to Ann Morgan about why the people and the place have captured her heart so completely, and what makes Greece and its islands so very special.

‘Walking the Bones of Britain’ with Christopher Somerville

From Destinations: The Holiday & Travel Show in London’s Olympia, The Stanfords Travel Writers Festival welcomes Christopher Somerville, author and walking correspondent for The Times. He talks to author Ben Aitken about his newest book Walking the Bones of Britain.

Travelling a thousand miles and across three billion years, Christopher Somerville sets out to interrogate the land beneath our feet, and how it has affected every aspect of human history from farming to house construction, the Industrial Revolution to the current climate crisis.

‘8,000 Miles in the Andes by Bamboo Bike’ with Kate Rawles: Stanfords Travel Writers Festival 2024

From Destinations: The Holiday & Travel Show in London’s Olympia, The Stanfords Travel Writers Festival welcomes author and eco adventurer Kate Rawles. She talks to author Ben Aitken about cycling the length of the Andes on an eccentric bicycle she built herself.

Pedalling hard for thirteen months, she witnesses the devastation of goldmining and oil drilling but finds hope in the incredible people working to regenerate habitats and communities. As she reaches the ‘end of the world’, she realises that to tackle biodiversity loss we all have a role to play.

Michel Roux in Conversation: Stanfords Travel Writers Festival 2024

From Destinations: The Holiday & Travel Show in London’s Olympia, The Stanfords Travel Writers Festival welcomes one of the world’s most respected chefs, Michel Roux. He talks to food writer and presenter Jo Pratt about some of his favourite dishes and cuisines, discovered on his culinary travels around the globe.

Michel Roux is one of the world’s most respected chefs, and this love of food runs through his family and heritage. Le Gavroche, which he ran from 1991 until the beginning of this year, received recommendations for excellence in every food guide. Michel’s early training in France instilled in him a belief in simplicity and quality of raw ingredients which has he put to use in developing the recipes he uses both at Le Gavroche and in his books.

‘One Medicine’ with Dr Matt Morgan: Stanfords Travel Writers Festival 2024

From Destinations: The Holiday & Travel Show in London’s Olympia, The Stanfords Travel Writers Festival welcomes author and intensive care doctor Matt Morgan. He talks to Antony Garvey about his exhilarating journey across continents exploring his work on both the intensive care unit and the pages of his book One Medicine. From Africa’s heart to Canada’s wilderness, Bali’s mystique, and Australia’s vast landscapes, he uncovers the universal themes of life, death, and the remarkable bond between humans and animals, sharing how diverse landscapes have shaped his perspective on medicine and healing.

‘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.

‘High Caucasus’ with Tom Parfitt: Stanfords Travel Writers Festival 2024

From Destinations: The Holiday & Travel Show in London’s Olympia, The Stanfords Travel Writers Festival welcomes The Times Russia correspondent Tom Parfitt. He talks to Ann Morgan about his Edward Stanford Travel Book of the Year shortlisted book ‘High Caucasus’ and discusses his deep ties to the area.

On 1 September 2004, Chechen and Ingush militants took more than a thousand people captive at a school in the Caucasus region of southern Russia. Working as a correspondent, Tom Parfitt witnessed the bloody climax in which 314 hostages died, more than half of them children. The experience left Tom emotionally shredded, struggling to find a way to return to his life in Moscow and put to rest the ghosts of the Beslan siege.

‘The Making of the Middle East’ with Barnaby Rogerson: Stanfords Travel Writers Festival 2024

From Destinations: The Holiday & Travel Show in London’s Olympia, The Stanfords Travel Writers Festival welcomes author and publisher Barnaby Rogerson. He talks to Clare Clark about his book The House Divided: Sunni, Shia and the Making of the Middle East.

At the heart of the Middle East, with its regional conflicts and proxy wars, is a 1400-year-old schism between Sunni and Shia. To understand this divide and its modern resonances, we need to revisit its origins, which go back to the death of the Prophet Muhammad in 632, the accidental coup that set aside the claims of his son Ali, and the slaughter of Ali’s own son Husayn at Kerbala. These events, known to every Muslim, have created a slender faultline in the Middle East.

‘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.

Michael Portillo in Conversation: Stanfords Travel Writers Festival 2020

Back by popular demand following his 2018 appearance, Michael Portillo returns to the Stanfords Travel Writers Festival. Since leaving politics we have watched him travel all around the world in his television documentaries. Championing the Bradshaw’s Handbook, Michael has looked in depth at the history of rail travel and how it opened up the world for people to travel. Hear him talk to Julia Wheeler about his vast travels and what he has learned along the way.