Stanfords Blog

Small Island by Philip Parker

To celebrate the launch of Small Island: 12 Maps that Explain the History of Britain , here, the author Philip Parker briefly explains some of the changes Britain has gone through since 500,000 BCE.

Life on board an ocean liner in the early 20th Century

Judith Eagle, author of Children’s Book of the Month, The Accidental Stowaway, describes what life was like on board an ocean liner at the beginning of the Twentieth Century.

In The Accidental Stowaway, Patch stows away on RMS Glorious, a ship that is sailing from Liverpool to New York. RMS Glorious (or Glory, for short) is based on the steamships that went back and forth across the Atlantic in Edwardian times.

The transatlantic liners were nicknamed ‘floating palaces’ because they were so luxurious. They were fitted out to look like the grandest hotels in Europe, with electric elevators, restaurants, libraries, music rooms, and lounges. They were decorated in the latest styles; the menus were created by the most fashionable chefs; and some of them even had special ‘extras’ like newspapers printed at sea!

Extract: The Edge of the Plain: How Borders Make and Break Our World by James Crawford

In this extract from The Edge of the Plain: How Borders Make and Break Our World, James Crawford goes in search of the Grafferner glacier in the Italian-Austrian Alps. Straddling the border between the two nations, when this glacier moves, the border moves too. It is what is known in Italian as a confine mobile – constituted in law by Italy and Austria as a ‘moving border’. A border defined and shaped by gravity, and now melting at an alarming rate due to the impacts of climate change…

Extract: Free to Go: Across the World on a Motorbike by Esa Aldegheri

When Esa Aldegheri and her husband left their home in Orkney, Esa didn’t know that their eighteen-month motorbike adventure would take them through twenty international frontiers – between Europe and the Middle East, through Pakistan, China and India – many of which are now impassable.

Charting a story of shrinking and expanding liberties and horizons, of motherhood, womanhood, xenophobia and changing geopolitical situations, Free to Go examines the challenges of navigating a world where many assume that women ride pillion, both on a motorbike and within relationships. Part around-the-world adventure, part-literary exploration of womanhood, Free to Go is about the journeys that shape and transform us.

Here is an extract from Free to Go: Across the World on a Motorbike by Esa Aldegheri:

Children’s Book of the Month: The Accidental Stowaway

Stanfords Children’s Book of the Month for August 2022 is The Accidental Stowaway by Judith Eagle.

By the celebrated author of The Pear Affair and The Secret Starling – Patch finds adventure on every deck of the ‘floating palace’ she accidentally stows away on.

Book of the Month: Small Island: A History of Britain in 12 Maps

Our Book of the Month for August is Small Island: A History of Britain in 12 Maps by Philip Parker.

A fascinating analysis of a dozen maps from critical points in British history over the last 2,000 years, from the Celtic period when ‘Britain’ was just a patchwork of tribal kingdoms, to a century ago when the whole of Ireland, India, Australia, much of Africa, Asia and the Americas were also marked as British.

Map of the Month: Wheelie great BRAND NEW cycling maps

Our Map of the Month for August is not just one map, we are excited to introduce the first five maps in a brand new series that will soon cover the whole of the UK.

Cycle Maps UK are produced at a scale of 1:100 000 showing important features including the National cycle Network. Sections on road, off road and traffic free are all shown in differing colours along with their route number. Other roads and their classification are shown enabling you to link rides or explore sections and discover new routes at home or further afield.

Extract: Landscapes of Silence: From Childhood to the Arctic by Hugh Brody

Renowned anthropologist and film-maker Hugh Brody weaves a dazzling tapestry of personal memory and distant landscapes: childhood in the Derbyshire hills in the shadow of the Second World War, a kibbutz in Israel and, eventually, the Canadian Arctic.

Conflicted and bewildered by the silence created by his concealed family history, he sought places to which he could escape. Yet everywhere he discovered deep and troubling silences, until he reached the High Arctic, a world far removed from anything he had known. It became a chance to learn, all over again, what it can mean to be alive – yet, even here, he encountered voices that had been silenced by the forces of colonialism.

In defiance of silence, Hugh Brody discovers, through memory and the land, a profound humanity – as well as hope.

Here is an extract from Landscapes of Silence: From Childhood to the Arctic by Hugh Brody:

When is a Map Political? by Adam Dant

Adam Dant’s Political Maps is an all-new collection of intricate, absorbing and beautiful maps, focused on the world of politics. Informed by his experiences as the official artist of the UK general election in 2015, these glorious works of art are amusing and subversive, hugely imaginative and packed with eye-catching detail.

Here, the artist and cartographer Adam Dant tells us what makes a map political:

Children’s Book of the Month: The Moon of Kyiv

Our Children’s Book of the Month for July 2022 is The Moon of Kyiv by Gianni Rodari, illustrated by Beatrice Alemagna.

100% of the net profit from the sale of this book will be donated to Save the Children fund for supporting children impacted by the conflict in Ukraine.

In 1955, beloved Italian poet Gianni Rodari penned a nursery rhyme called “The Moon of Kyiv”. It was a poem about our shared humanity – the poem reminding us that, no matter where we’re from, or where we live, we all exist under the same moon.