Stanfords Blog

An Extract from Soundings

An extract from Soundings: Journeys in the Company of Whales by Doreen Cunningham.

Travelling the grey whale highway

The train ride is a beauty. We shoot out of the station in our capsule, in glorious limbo, past the Wun Fun meat company buildings and a viaduct. Max and I stare out the window, transfixed. Muddy brown snake of river and yellow conveyor- belt- plant flash past. Glittering heaps and in the distance mountains. I can feel the landscape filling my head. This is how my heart is furnished, like the view from a train. I like to be totally occupied in the immediate. And am always, always, longing for something in the distance.

Antarc-TECH-a!

Karen Romano Young, author of our Children’s Book of the Month for May Antarctica: The Melting Continent describes some of the tech used in this far away part of the globe.

Going into “the field” — on adventures in nature — with scientists has introduced me to some of the incredible machines they’re using to find new data and make discoveries about Antarctica. Would you like to meet a small sampling?

Ran: Named for a sea witch in Norse mythology, the HUGIN underwater robot is remotely operated, so it can explore under ice where ships and divers can’t go. Swedish scientist Anna Wåhlin “deployed” it (puts it in the sea) to study the enormous Thwaites Glacier, the size of the UK.

5 Modernist Buildings Near Stanfords

-by Owen Hatherley

One of the things you learn compiling a guide to the best modern buildings in the country is that there are surprisingly few in Central London. This is ironic, because the capital dominates modern architecture in the UK, much more than it ought to – but planning regulations and widespread conservation have kept much of it outside of Westminster, and the area around it, in particular. But there are five buildings in a very short walking distance from Stanford’s where you can get some sense of what modernism in Britain is all about – its stylistic diversity, its long history, and the different ways it has adapted – or hasn’t – to historic context.

Map of the Month: NC500 Collins Pocket Map

Our Map of the Month for May 2022 is the NC500 Collins Pocket Map. This fold out map of the hugely popular North Coast 500 is a NEW edition from Collins Maps.

The North Coast 500 is a scenic route around the north coast of Scotland that was launched in March 2015 by the Tourism Project Board of the North Highland Initiative. Linking many must see features in the north Highlands of Scotland in one touring route, It is commonly known as Scotland’s Route 66 and regularly features in lists of best drives in the world.

Children’s Book of the Month: Antarctica

Our Children’s Book of the Month for May 2022 is Antarctica: The Melting Continent by Karen Romano Young, Angela Hsieh.

Antarctica – vast, cold and mysterious. This frozen continent is full of incredible stories. Here you can discover incredible wildlife, awe-inspiring landscapes and adventurous scientists and explorers.

Join author Karen Romano Young on a trip across Antarctica, hanging out with people and animals and learning about how this special place is changing, and what it means for our planet. Hang out with some of the coolest creatures on earth above and below the ice as you meet emperor penguins, killer whales and elephant seals. Explore some of the harshest landscapes on earth following in the footsteps of brave explorers. And learn about how scientists survive here today and what they do all day – from studying climate change to investigating ice cores to learn about the history – and future – of our planet.

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.

Where My Feet Fall: Going For A Walk In Twenty Stories

Edited by Duncan Minshull. William Collins.

To head for a place on foot is to – meander and wander.. ramble and amble.. stroll and saunter.. strut and scuff.. loiter and lurch.. ambulate and.. well, just walk. Furthermore, don’t we set out across all sorts of landscapes and cityscapes, in all sorts of weathers, for all sorts of reasons? Be they physical or psychological reasons, personal or public, sometimes even political?

And, isn’t it about time we had insight into this?

An extract from the prologue of Crossed off the Map: Travels in Bolivia

-by Shafik Meghji

In 1867, so the story goes, Mariano Melgarejo, the 15th president of Bolivia, asked the British ambassador to pay respects to his latest mistress. When the request was haughtily declined, Melgarejo, whose time in office was marked by brutality and political miscalculation, took great offence. The ambassador was swiftly apprehended, stripped naked, tied to an ass – facing the rear, naturally – and paraded around the main square of La Paz, before being kicked out of the country.

Weird and wonderful creatures from around the world

-by Matt Robertson, author and illustrator of our Children’s Book of the Month Do You Love Exploring?

From the sweltering heat of the Saharan desert to the freezing wilds of the Arctic, animal habitats are varied and diverse. From exploring these different habitats I’ve loved learning about the weird and the wonderful, and it’s made me realise just how lucky we are to have so many incredible creatures on our little planet. Here’s a sneaky peak of some of the amazing creatures you will discover when you explore the pages of my new book, DO YOU LOVE EXPLORING?

Grasslands

The Giant Anteater has an almighty hunger for termites. These long snouted mammals can swallow up to 35,000 termites in one day!

An extract from: Strandings: Confessions of a Whale Scavenger

We are delighted to present an extract from Peter Riley’s new book Strandings: Confessions Of A Whale Scavenger.

…..

When I was thirteen, I helped a woman with blue hair load the jaw of a sperm whale into the back of a yellow Volvo 245. It only just fitted. What she’d got hold of wasn’t quite as big as the one that greets you at the entrance of the Natural History Museum in Oxford; that’s still the most enormous jaw I’ve ever seen. Nevertheless, what I helped carry was big. And heavy. Add to that the pounds of blubber and you get a sense of what we transported that morning – maybe the weight of a tall man. According to the butchers I’ve asked, it must have taken her at least half an hour to saw through. If you’ve ever handled a piece of whalebone, you’ll know how durable and solid it feels – like reinforced, triple-weighted pumice. In the case of a sperm whale, it’s even sturdier, needing to withstand higher water pressures than in other, shallower-diving members of its species. The blue-haired woman had accomplished this at night, alone, and in the steady Norfolk rain.