travel writing – Page 2 – Stanfords Blog

Book Launch: Children of the Volcano by Ros Belford

Last night we hosted the launch of Ros Belford’s new book Children of the Volcano: Finding Freedom and Making a Home for Three in Sicily.

This is an uplifting, humorous memoir of a mother building a new life on a beautiful Sicilian island.

Reeling from a broken relationship, Ros Belford decides the best chance she has of healing, while giving her daughters a childhood to remember, is to move to Italy and live by the sea.

After a false start in a town where machismo is ingrained, they find the small, lush, delightful island of Salina. Izzy and Juno grow up playing on the beach, learning to swim over volcanic bubbles, hearing tales of Aeolian witches and watching Stromboli erupt on the horizon. It is not entirely paradise, however. The school is atrocious, there are power cuts and an earthquake, and property speculators threaten the island’s fragile beauty. But an eclectic community of islanders take them to their hearts, friendships are forged and Salina becomes home.

Full of humanity, vitality, honesty and optimism, Children of the Volcano is for anyone unwilling to give up dreams of adventure and excitement simply because of parenthood, lack of money and not getting things right the first time.

Children of the Volcano by Ros Belford is available now for £19.99. We have signed copies while stocks last.

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:

Michael Palin’s Bestselling Travel Books

The 2017 recipient of the Edward Stanford Outstanding Contribution to Travel Writing, and our good friend Sir Michael Palin has been gracing our televisions again with his three-part Channel 5 series Michael Palin in Nigeria. If that has inspired you to read/ re-read his back catalogue, Orion have just re-released his bestselling travel books with revamped paperback covers.

Author Talk: Taking the Risk with Hilary Bradt

Last night we hosted a sold out event with Hilary Bradt in conversation with Matthew Parris as they discussed her new book and our April Book of the Month Taking the Risk: My adventures in travel and publishing.

Book Launch: Why We Travel by Ash Bhardwaj

Last week we hosted the launch of Why We Travel by Ash Bhardwaj.

Why We Travel is a smart-thinking travel book, which uses travel as a window into human motivations. It explores what we can gain from venturing out into the world.

Extract: Running on Empty by Guy Deacon

At the age of sixty, and having lived with Parkinson’s disease for over ten years, Guy Deacon CBE set out on one last adventure: to drive solo from his home in the UK 18,000 miles and through twenty-five countries to Cape Town on the southern tip of Africa. Running on Empty is the story of this incredible journey, across Europe and down the full length of Africa, took the former British Army officer over twelve months. Along the way, he broke down five times, underwent one emergency evacuation, and took 3,650 prescription pills.

There are only a handful of vehicles each year which attempt this difficult journey; many never complete it. Ongoing conflicts in Libya, South Sudan, Mozambique and many other countries make any journey exceptionally dangerous. In central Africa, road conditions, particularly in the rainy season, often make the going treacherous.

Further hazards include illegal checkpoints, extortion, contaminated fuel and a lack of services. Guy drove, lived and slept in his VW Transporter, often in remote spots, hundreds of miles from the nearest village or town. Reliant on patchy GPS, he often got lost.

His journey was, quite simply, an incredible feat by a man travelling alone with Stage 3 Parkinson’s disease, when simply putting on a pair of shoes can take half an hour. But not only did Guy’s journey fulfil a childhood dream to drive the length of Africa, his mission was also to raise global awareness of Parkinson’s disease, for which there is currently still no cure.

Here is an extract:

Stanfords Event: Wayfarer by Phoebe Smith

Last night we celebrated the launch of adventurer Phoebe Smith’s new book Wayfarer. Phoebe was interviewed by editor and travel writer Meera Dattani in front of a packed out audience.

Book of the Month: The Half Known Life by Pico Iyer

Our Book of the Month for January 2023 is The Half Known Life: Finding Paradise in a Divided World by the former Edward Stanford Travel Writing Award winner Pico Iyer.

One of the most perceptive travel writers embarks on an exploration of the world’s holiest places and where we might find paradise on Earth.

“It’s so easy, I thought, to place Paradise in the past or the future – anywhere but here.”

After half a century of travel, from Ethiopia to Tibet, from Belfast to Jerusalem, Pico Iyer asks himself what kind of paradise can ever be found in a world of unceasing conflict. In a spectacular journey, both inward and outward, Iyer roams from crowded mosques in Iran to a film studio in North Korea, from a holy mountain in Japan to the sometimes spooky emptiness of the Australian outback.

2023 Edward Stanford Travel Book of the Year Shortlist Announced

The Shortlist for the 2023 Edward Stanford Travel Book of the Year has been announced. The award, which was open to authors from all across the world, celebrates excellence in literary travel writing.

Edward Stanford Travel Book of the Year Shortlist:

The Amur River by Colin Thubron in pictures

Rising in the Mongolian mountains and flowing through Siberia to the Pacific, the Amur River forms the tense border between Russia and China. This is the most densely fortified frontier on Earth.

In his eightieth year, Colin Thubron takes a dramatic and often treacherous journey from the Amur’s secret source to its giant mouth, covering almost 3,000 miles. Harassed by injury and by arrest from the local police, he makes his way along both the Russian and Chinese shores. By the time he reaches the river’s desolate end, a whole, pivotal world has come alive.

To celebrate the paperback launch of the 2022 Stanford Dolman winning The Amur River by Colin Thubron here are some photographs taken on the journey.