#STWF – Page 2 – Stanfords Blog

‘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.

Watch the 2021 Stanfords Travel Writers Festival

Ordinarily the Stanfords team spend the beginning of the year setting up their map clad stage at Destinations: The Holiday & Travel Show at Olympia. For obvious reasons the in person show did not happen this year so we took the show online.

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.

Dr Jon Copley: Exploring the Ocean Depths: Stanfords Travel Writers Festival 2020

The wellbeing of our oceans has never been more important. But to truly understand the vital role they play, we need to first understand how the oceans work, how we explore them and learn about the mysteries they hold, and what our effect is on them. Combining untold history of ocean exploration and personal account of what it’s like to be a ‘bathynaut’ diving in a mini-submarine, Jonathan Copley brings to light weird and wonderful deep-sea creatures and how the oceans and their future is connected to our everyday lives.

Ben Aitken: An Unlikely Year in Poland: Stanfords Travel Writers Festival 2020

In 2016 Ben Aitken moved to Poland to work in a fish and chip shop. He booked the cheapest flight he could find, to a place he had never heard of – Poznan. Between peeling potatoes and boning fish, Ben spent time on the road travelling the country and learning about its history. Talking to Julia Wheeler, Ben gives a bittersweet portrait of an unsung country, challenging stereotypes and revealing a diverse country, rightfully proud of its colourful identity.

Lucy Richards: Where to Go When: Stanfords Travel Writing Festival 2020

Dreaming of your next adventure? Whether you’re looking for festivals and culture, an unforgettable journey, natural wonders, rest and relaxation, or active adventures, Lucy Richards talks to Paul Blezard about the most amazing places in the world and the best time of year to visit them. Discover when to explore Costa Rica’s rainforests, journey into the clouds in Nepal, sail between Croatia’s cypress-clad islands, or gaze at the saw-toothed crags of Canada’s Rocky Mountains.