Edward Stanford award shortlist reveals 'formidable line up'

Authors including Sharlene Teo (Ponti, Picador), Sayaka Murata (Convenience Store Woman, Granta) and Levison Wood (Arabia, Hodder) have been shortlisted for the Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards (ESTWA), recognising the best travel writing in the world.

The diverse shortlist comprises a total of 42 books, divided into the awards categories: Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year; Fiction, with a Sense of Place; Lonely Planet Adventure Travel Book of the Year; Ordnance Survey Children’s Travel Book of the Year; Photography and Illustrated Travel Book of the Year; Travel Cookery Book of the Year; Travel Memoir of the Year; and Bradt Travel Guides New Travel Writer of the Year.

Explorer Benedict Allen and Wanderlust editor Phoebe Smith introduced the shortlist at the launch party for the new Stanford’s premises on Mercer Walk, Covent Garden last night. Authors in the running range from award-winners to debuts while their titles span journeys across the globe, secrets of the lost Ottoman Empire, Persian kitchens and war zones.

Vivien Godfrey, chairman and chief executive of Stanfords, said this year's shortlist represented "a formidable line up of incredibly talented writers across the full spectrum of the travel writing genre".

She added: "2019 is a very exciting year for Stanfords as we make our own journey from Long Acre to our new premises on Mercer Walk, and what better way to start that adventure than with these awards, which are now in their fourth year."

The winner of the Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year Award, in association with The Authors Club, will receive £2,500 at the awards ceremony which takes place at Unit Six on Langley Street, opposite the new Stanfords shop at 7 Mercers Walk, on 28th February.

Judges for the 2019 awards include Allen, Smith, author Horatio Clare andVanity Fair travel editor Michelle Jana Chan. Each winner will be presented with a hand-made globe featuring a design produced exclusively for the ESTWAs. The final award is the Edward Stanford Outstanding Contribution to Travel Writing. The previous winners were Bill Bryson, Michael Palin and Jan Morris.

The full shortlists can be found below:

Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year

Ottoman Odyssey: Travels Through a Lost Empire, Alev Scott, Jamie Whyte (Map and Illustration) (Riverrun, Quercus)
Lights in the Distance: Exile and Refuge at the Borders of Europe, Daniel Trilling (Picador, Pan Macmillan)
The Rhine: Following Europe’s Greatest River from Amsterdam to the Alps, Ben Coates (Nicholas Brealey Publishing)
Dancing Bears: True Stories about Longing for the Old Days, Witold Szablowski (translated from Polish by Antonia Lloyd Jones) (Text Publishing)
The Stopping Places: A Journey Through Gypsy Britain, Damian Le Bas (Chatto & Windus)
The Immeasurable World: Journeys in Desert Places, William Atkins (Faber & Faber)

Fiction, with a Sense of Place

Kintu, Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi (Oneworld)
Convenience Store Woman, Sayaka Murata (Translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori) (Granta Publications)
Ponti, Sharlene Teo (Picador, Pan Macmillan)
The Madonna of the Mountains, Elise Valmorbida (Faber & Faber)
Woman At Sea, Catherine Poulain (Jonathan Cape)
House of Stone, Novuyo Rosa Tshuma (Atlantic Books)

Lonely Planet Adventure Travel Book of the Year

The Secret Surfer, Iain Gately (Head of Zeus)
Kings of the Yukon: A River Journey in Search of the Chinook, Adam Weymouth (Particular, Penguin Press)
Up: My Life’s Journey to the Top of Everest, Ben and Marina Fogle, Mark Fisher (photographer) (HarperCollins)
Arabia: A Journey Through The Heart of the Middle East, Levison Wood (Hodder & Stoughton)
Around the World in 80 Days: My World Record Breaking Adventure, Mark Beaumont (Bantam Press)
Me, My Bike and a Street Dog Called Lucy, Ishbel Holmes (Bradt Travel Guides)

Ordnance Survey Children’s Travel Book of the Year

Destination: Planet Earth, Jo Nelson, illustrated by Tom Clohosy Cole (Wide Eye Editions, Quarto)
Alastair Humpreys’ Great Adventures, Alastair Humphreys, illustrated by Kevin Ward (Big Picture Press, Bonnier)
Explorers on Witch Mountain, Alex Bell, illustrated by Tomislav Tomic (Faber & Faber)
Atlas of Adventures: Wonders of the World, Ben Handicott, illustrated by Lucy Letherland (Wide Eye Editions, Quarto)
Journeys, Jonathan Litton, illustrated by Leo Hartas, Chris Chalik, Jon Davis and David Shephard (360 Degrees, Little Tiger Group)
Maps of the United Kingdom, Rachel Dixon and Illustrated by Livi Gosling (Wide Eye Editions, Quarto)

Photography and Illustrated Travel Book of the Year

The Writer’s Map: An Atlas of Imaginary Lands, Huw Lewis-Jones (Thames and Hudson)
The Hidden Tracks, Cam Honan (Gestalten)
Wonders: Spectacular Moments in Nature Photography, Rhonda Rubinstein and California Academy of Sciences (Chronicle Books)
Maps of London and Beyond, Adam Dant, foreword by The Gentle Author (Pavilion Books)
Escape by Bike: Adventure Cycling, Bikepacking and Touring Off-Road, Joshua Cunningham (Thames and Hudson)
The Golden Atlas: The Greatest Explorations, Quests and Discoveries on Maps, Edward Brooke-Hitching (Simon & Schuster)

Travel Cookery Book of the Year

Pasta Pane Vino: Deep Travels Through Italy's Food Culture, Matt Goulding (Hardie Grant)
Copenhagen Food, Trine Hahnemann, Photography by Columbus Leth (Quadrille, Hardie Grant)
Shetland: Cooking on the Edge of the World, James & Tom Morton, Photography by Andy Sewell (Quadrille, Hardie Grant)
Black Sea: Dispatches and Recipes – Through Darkness and Light, Caroline Eden (Quadrille, Hardie Grant)
Nightingales and Roses: Recipes from the Persian Kitchen, Maryam Sinaiee (Head of Zeus)
Khazana: A Treasure Trove of Indo-Persian Recipes Inspired by the Mughals, Saliha Mahmood Ahmed (Hodder & Stoughton)

Travel Memoir of the Year

The Crossway, Guy Stagg (Picador, Pan Macmillan)
Step By Step: The Life in My Journeys, Simon Reeve (Hodder & Stoughton)
Thinking on my Feet: The Small Joy of Putting One Foot in Front of Another, Kate Humble (Aster, Octopus Books)
In Extremis: The Life of War Correspondent Marie Colvin, Lindsey Hilsum (Chatto & Windus)
The Salt Path, Raynor Winn (Michael Joseph)
Skybound: A Journey In Flight, Rebecca Loncraine (Picador, Pan Macmillan)

Bradt Travel Guides New Travel Writer of the Year

Breathtaking Bryce by Moira Ashley
Reflections of Dubai by Celia Dillow
Through the Blue by Hannah Doyle
Unexpected Sunlight by Amanda Huggins