Launch of Journeys

Online event to celebrate the Launch of John Murray Journeys

On July 11th 2022 we teamed up with John Murray Press for an online event celebrating the republication of three titles for their Journeys series: In a Land Far from Home by Syed Mujtaba Ali, introduced by Taran Khan; Desert Soul by Isabelle Eberhardt, introduced by William Atkins; and Through Khiva to Golden Samarkand by Ella Christie, introduced by Caroline Eden.

The event was hosted by Nick Hunt (author of Outlandish) with Edward Stanford Travel Writing Award-winning authors; William Atkins, Taran Khan and Caroline Eden who introduce us to these three remarkable stories, sharing with us the reasons they love them and reading some short extracts. We were also joined by translator Nazes Afroz who translated In a Land Far from Home from Bengali to English.

Book of the Month: Exiles

Our Book of the Month for May 2022 is Exiles: Three Island Journeys by William Atkins.

A luminous exploration of exile – the people who have experienced it, and the places they inhabit – from the Stanford Dolman award-winning travel writer and author of The Immeasurable World and The Moor.

This is the story of three unheralded nineteenth-century dissidents, whose lives were profoundly shaped by the winds of empire, nationalism and autocracy that continue to blow strongly today: Louise Michel, a leader of the radical socialist government known as the Paris Commune; Dinuzulu kaCetshwayo, an enemy of British colonialism in Zululand; and Lev Shternberg, a militant campaigner against Russian tsarism.

William Atkins: Journeys in Desert Places: Stanfords Travel Writers Festival 2020

Winner of the Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year at the 2019 Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards, William Atkins talks to Julia Wheeler about his experiences in eight deserts: the Empty Quarter of Oman, the Gobi Desert and Taklamakan deserts of northwest China, the Great Victoria Desert of Australia, the man-made desert of the Aral Sea in Kazakhstan, the Black Rock and Sonoran Deserts of the American Southwest, and Egypt’s Eastern Desert. Hear all about the timeless allure of these remote and forbidding places.

The Immeasurable World: Journeys in Desert Places by William Atkins.

Reading the Wainwright Prize: The Moor

In the run up to the announcement of this year’s Wainwright Prize winner, we’re sharing extracts from each of the shortlisted books – next we have William Atkins’ The Moor. Continue reading Reading the Wainwright Prize: The Moor

Wainwright Prize shortlist announced

The shortlist for this year’s Wainwright Prize has been announced – will Helen Macdonald’s H is for Hawk swoop to conquer once again?

Continue reading Wainwright Prize shortlist announced

Wainwright Prize Longlist in Pictures

We’re not saying you should ever judge a book by its cover – but here are some of the beautifully designed jackets for the books making this year’s Wainwright Prize longlist.

The longlist in full

Britannia Obscura: Mapping Hidden Britain by Joanne Parker (Vintage, Penguin Random House)

Claxton: Field Notes from a Small Planet by Mark Cocker (Vintage, Penguin Random House)

Counting Sheep by Philip Walling (Profile)

H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald (Vintage, Penguin Random House)

Meadowland by John Lewis-Stempel (Transworld Publishers)

On Silbury Hill by Adam Thorpe (Little Toller Books)

Rising Ground: A Search for the Spirit of Place by Philip Marsden (Granta Publications)

Running Free: A Runner’s Journey Back to Nature by Richard Askwith (Vintage/Yellow Jersey, Penguin Random House)

The Ash Tree by Oliver Rackham (Little Toller Books)

The Moor by William Atkins (Faber & Faber)

The Walker’s Guide to Outdoor Clues and Signs by Tristan Gooley (Hodder & Stoughton)

Walking Home by Clare Balding (Penguin Books)

The shortlist will be announced on 26th March and the winner will be announced at a ceremony on 22nd April.