Summersdale – Stanfords Blog

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.

Book of the Month: Slow Trains to Istanbul

Our Book of the Month is 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 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.

Slow Trains to Istanbul is available now for £20

Watch Tom Chesshyre introduce his new book:

Life Lessons From the Amazon by Pip Stewart

Last night we made the most of a beautiful balmy evening in Covent Garden by hosting the launch of Life Lessons From the Amazon: A Guide to Life From One Epic Jungle Adventure by Pip Stewart.

Monuments and Markers along the Great North Road

Are you the kind of person who can’t walk past a plaque or a monument without reading every single word? Here, Steve Silk, the author of The Great North Road, talks us through his five favourites along the 400 miles between London and Edinburgh.

As a crucial route linking London to Edinburgh, the Great North Road has been Britain’s backbone for centuries. Kings, queens, soldiers, rebels, mail coaches and highwaymen used the road to get from A to B. One hundred years later journalist Steve Silk went on pilgrimage by bike to explore its history. At a slower pace it’s easier to notice key markers and signs of the past that surround us…