Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards
The Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards celebrate the best travel writing and travel writers in the world. The awards include the Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year and the Edward Stanford Award for Outstanding Contribution to Travel Writing.
The Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year was previously called Dolman Best Travel Book Award. The award is named after Edward Stanford and is sponsored by Stanfords, a travel books and map store established in London in 1853. The Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year is one of the two principal annual travel book awards in Britain, and the only one that is open to all writers. The other award is that made each year by the British Guild of Travel Writers, but that is limited to authors who are members of the Guild.
The first Dolman award was given in 2006, just two years after the only other travel book award - the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award which ran for 25 years - was abandoned by its sponsor. From its founding through 2014, the £1,000 to £2,500 prize was organized by the Authors' Club and was sponsored by and named after club member William Dolman. Beginning in 2015, a new sponsor Stanfords, a travel book store, was established along with an increase to £5,000 for the winner.
List of awards
The Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards consist of the following:- Stanford Travel Book of the Year
- Outstanding Contribution to Travel Writing
- Bradt Travel Guides New Travel Writer of the Year
- Children's Travel Book of the Year
- Fiction with a Sense of Place
- Adventure Travel Book of the Year
- Travel Memoir of the Year
- Travel Blog of the Year
- Photography and Illustrated Travel Book of The Year
- Food & Travel Book of the Year
- Innovation in Travel Publishing
- New Travel Writer of the Year
Stanford Travel Book of the Year
= winner"Stanford Travel Book of the Year":
2025
- Noo Saro-Wiwa, Black Ghosts: A Journey Into The Lives Of Africans In China
- Clare Hammond, On the Shadow Tracks: A Journey through Occupied Myanmar
- Tom Chesshyre, Slow Trains to Istanbul:...And Back: A 4,570-Mile Adventure on 55 Rides
- James Rebanks, The Place of Tides
- Phoebe Smith, Wayfarer
- Jeff Young, Wild Twin
- Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, A Stranger in Your Own City: Travels in the Middle East’s Long War
- Alice Albinia, The Britannias: An Archipelago’s Tale
- Mary Colwell, The Gathering Place: A Winter Pilgrimage Through Changing Times
- Tim Hannigan, The Granite Kingdom
- Leon McCarron, Wounded Tigris
- Tom Parfitt, High Caucasus: A Mountain Quest in Russia’s Haunted Hinterland
- Silvia Vasquez-Lavado, In The Shadow of the Mountain
- Alex Bescoby, The Last Overland: Singapore to London: The Return Journey of the Iconic Land Rover Expedition
- Erika Fatland, High: A Journey Across the Himalayas Through Pakistan, India, Bhutan, Nepal and China
- Tobias Jones, The Po: An Elegy for Italy’s Longest River
- Rebecca Lowe, The Slow Road to Tehran: A Revelatory Bike Ride through Europe and the Middle East
- Shafik Meghji, Crossed Off the Map: Travels in Bolivia
- Alice Morrison, Walking with Nomads
- Mary Novakovich, My Family and Other Enemies: Life and Travels in Croatia’s Hinterland
2022
- Colin Thubron, The Amur River: Between Russia and China
- Polly Barton, Fifty Sounds
- Tharik Hussain, Minarets in the Mountains
- Nina Mingya Powles, Small Bodies of Water
- Joseph Zárate, Wars of the Interior
- Paolo Cognetti, Without Ever Reaching the Summit: A Himalayan Journey
- Erika Fatland, The Border: A Journey Around Russia Through North Korea, China, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Poland, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Norway, and the Northeast Passage
- Taran Khan, Shadow City: A Woman Walks Kabul
- Nanjala Nyabola, Traveling While Black: Essays Inspired by a Life on the Move
- Jini Reddy, Wanderland: A Search for Magic in the Landscape
- Sophy Roberts, The Lost Pianos of Siberia
- C J Schuler, Along the Amber Route: St Petersburg to Venice
- Jonathan C Slaght, Owls of the Eastern Ice: The Quest to Find and Save the World's Largest Owl
- Robert Macfarlane, Underland
- Rory Mclean, Pravda Ha Ha
- Paul Theroux, On the Plain of Snakes
- Nicholas Jubber, Epic Continent
- Simon Winder, Lotharingia
- Anna Sherman, The Bells Of Old Tokyo
- Richard Bassett, Last Days in Old Europe
- Monisha Rajesh, Around the World in 80 Trains
- Sara Wheeler, Mud and Stars
- William Atkins, The Immeasurable World: Journeys in Desert Places
- Ben Coates, The Rhine: Following Europe's Greatest River from Amsterdam to the Alps
- Damian Le Bas, The Stopping Places: A Journey Through Gypsy Britain
- Alev Scott, Map and Illustration by Jamie Whyte, Ottoman Odyssey: Travels Through a Lost Empire
- Witold Szablowski, Dancing Bears: True Stories about Longing for the Old Days
- Daniel Trilling, Lights in the Distance: Exile and Refuge at the Borders of Europe
- Patrick Barkham, Islander: A Journey Around Our Archipelago
- Garrett Carr, The Rule of the Land: Walking Ireland's Border
- Kapka Kassabova, Border: A Journey to the Edge of Europe
- Kushanava Choudhury, The Epic City: The World on the Streets of Calcutta
- Philip Hoare, Risingtidefallingstar
- Nick Hunt, Where the Wild Winds Are: Walking Europe's Winds from the Pennines to Provence
- Isambard Wilkinson, Photographs by Chev Wilkinson, Travels in a Dervish Cloak
2016
- James Attlee, Station To Station: Searching for Stories On The Great Western Line
- Geoff Dyer, White Sands: Experiences from the Outside World
- Elisabeth Luard, Squirrel Pie : Adventures in Food Across the Globe
- Jim Perrin, The Hills of Wales
- Julian Sayarer, Interstate: Hitchhiking Through the State of a Nation
- Paul Theroux, Deep South
- Philip Marsden, Rising Ground: A Search for the Spirit of Place
- Helena Attlee, The Land Where Lemons Grow: The Story of Italy and Its Citrus Fruit
- Horatio Clare, Down to the Sea in Ships: Of Ageless Oceans and Modern Men
- Nick Hunt, Walking the Woods and the Water: In Patrick Leigh Fermor's footsteps from the Hook of Holland to the Golden Horn
- Jens Mühling, A Journey into Russia
- Elizabeth Pisani, Indonesia Etc: Exploring the Improbable Nation
2014
- Oliver Bullough, The Last Man in Russia
- Patrick Leigh Fermor, The Broken Road
- Charlotte Higgins, Under Another Sky: Journeys in Roman Britain
- Iain Sinclair, American Smoke
- Sylvain Tesson, Consolations of the Forest: Alone in a Cabin in the Middle Taiga
- Sara Wheeler, O My America!
- Noo Saro-Wiwa, Looking For Transwonderland: Travels in Nigeria
- Jeremy Seal, Meander: East to West Along a Turkish River
- Kathleen Jamie, Sightlines
- A. A. Gill, The Golden Door: Letters to America
- Robert MacFarlane, The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot
- Michael Jacobs, The Robber of Memories: A River Journey Through Colombia
- Julia Blackburn, Thin Paths: Journeys in and around an Italian Mountain Village
- John Gimlette, Wild Coast: Travels on South America's Untamed Edge
- Jacek Hugo-Bader, White Fever: A Journey to the Frozen Heart of Siberia
- Olivia Laing, To the River: A Journey Beneath the Surface
- Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts, Harlem is Nowhere: A Journey to the Mecca of Black America
- Colin Thubron, To a Mountain in Tibet
- Nicolas Jubber, Drinking Arak off an Ayatollah's Beard: A Journey Through the Inside-Out Worlds of Iran and Afghanistan
- Rachel Polonsky, Molotov's Magic Lantern: A Journey in Russian History
- Katherine Russell Rich, Dreaming in Hindi: Coming Awake in Another Language
- Graham Robb, Parisians: An Adventure History of Paris
- Douglas Rogers, The Last Resort: A Memoir of Zimbabwe
- Simon Winder, Germania: In Wayward Pursuit of the Germans and Their History
- William Blacker, Along the Enchanted Way
- Horatio Clare, A Single Swallow
- Matthew Engel, Eleven Minutes Late: A Train Journey to the Soul of Britain
- Daniel Metcalfe, Out of Steppe
- Susan Richards, Lost and Found in Russia
- Hugh Thomson, Tequila Oil: Getting Lost in Mexico
- Ian Thomson, The Dead Yard
- Alice Albinia, Empires of the Indus
- Andrew Brown, Fishing in Utopia
- Richard Grant, Bandit Roads
- Kapka Kassabova, Street Without a Name
- Grevel Lindop, Travels on the Dance Floor
- Dervla Murphy, The Island that Dared
- Tim Butcher, Blood River
- Henry Hemming, Misadventure in the Middle East
- John Lucas, 92 Acharnon Street
- Robert Macfarlane, The Wild Places
- Christopher Robbins, In Search of Kazakhstan: The Land that Disappeared
- Rory McCarthy, Nobody Told Us We Are Defeated
- David McKie, Great British Bus Journeys
- Tom Parry, Thumbs Up Australia: Hitchhiking the Outback
- Claire Scobie, Last Seen in Lhasa
- Nicholas Jubber, The Prester Quest
- Joanna Kavenna, The Ice Museum
- Ruth Padel, Tigers in Red Weather: A Quest for the Last Wild Tigers
- Richard Lloyd Parry, In the Time of Madness
- Stevie Smith, ''Pedalling to Hawaii''
Edward Stanford Outstanding Contribution to Travel Writing award
A lifetime achievement award for travel writing.- 2024: Nicholas Crane
- 2023: Tony Wheeler
- 2022: Hilary Bradt
- 2021: Dervla Murphy
- 2020: Paul Theroux
- 2019: Colin Thubron
- 2018: Jan Morris
- 2017: no award
- 2016: Michael Palin
- 2015: Bill Bryson
Fiction with a Sense of Place
- 2024: Abraham Verghese, The Covenant of Water
- 2023: no award
- 2022: Leïla Slimani,,The Country of Others
- 2021: no award
- 2020: Nickolas Butler, Little Faith
- 2019: Novuyo Rosa Tshuma, House of Stone
- 2018: Tristan Hughes, Hummingbird
- 2017: no award
- 2016: Madeleine Thien, ''Do Not Say We Have Nothing''
Children's Travel Book of the Year
- 2024: Mya-Rose Craig, Flight: Explore the secret routes of the skies from a bird’s-eye view…
- 2023: Hannah Gold The Lost Whale
- 2022: Zillah Bethell, The Shark Caller
- 2021: no award
- 2020: Chloe Daykin, Fire Girl, Forest Boy
- 2019: Alastair Humphreys, Alastair Humphreys' Great Adventurers
- 2018:: Katherine Rundell and illustrated by Hannah Horn, The Explorer
- 2017: no award
- 2016: Lucy Letherland, Rachel Williams & Emily Hawkins, ''Atlas of Animal Adventures''
Photographic Travel Book of the Year
- 2024: no award
- 2023: no award
- 2022: Stuart Dunn, Only Us
- 2021: no award
- 2020: Sam Landers, Tom Maday, ''Trope London''
Illustrated Travel Book of the Year
- 2024: no award
- 2023: no award
- 2022: Matt Brown, Rhys B. Davies, illustrated by Mike Hall, Atlas of Imagined Places: From Lilliput to Gotham City
- 2021: no award
- 2020: Travis Elborough, ''Atlas of Vanishing Places: The lost worlds as they were and as they are today''
Food & Drink Travel Book of the Year
- 2024: no award
- 2023: no award
- 2022: Yasmin Khan, Ripe Figs: Recipes and Stories from the Eastern Mediterranean
- 2021: no award
- 2020: Eleanor Ford, Fire Islands
- 2019: Caroline Eden, Black Sea: Dispatches and Recipes, Through Darkness and Light
- 2018: Bart van Olphen, Bart's Fish Tales
- 2017: no award
- 2016: Tessa Kiros, ''Provence to Pondicherry''
New Travel Writer of the Year
- 2024: Sinean Callery
- 2023: Emma Willsteed, What Was Left Behind
- 2022: Ruth Cox, Ghar Ghosts
- 2021: Anita King, Hope in Pink Meringue
- 2020: Kirstin Zhang, Closer to Home
- 2019: Celia Dillow, Reflections of Dubai
- 2018: Alan Packer, The Village Sledge Run
- 2017: no award
- 2016: Dom Tulett, ''The Tiger's Tail''
Photography & Illustrated Travel Book of the Year
- 2019: Huw Lewis-Jones, The Writer's Map: An Atlas of Imaginary Lands
- 2018: Londonist Mapped by AA Publishing
- 2017: no award
- 2016: Malachy Tallack & Katie Scott, ''The Un-Discovered Islands''
Innovation in Travel Publishing
- 2016: James Cheshire & Oliver Uberti, ''Where the Animals Go''
Travel Memoir of the Year
- 2020: Pico Iyer, A Beginner's Guide to Japan: Observations and Provocations
- 2019: Guy Stagg, ''The Crossway''
Adventure Travel Book of the Year
- 2020: Lara Prior-Palmer, Rough Magic: Riding the World's Wildest Horse Race
- 2019: Adam Weymouth, Kings of the Yukon: One Summer Paddling Across the Far North
- 2018: Morten Strøksnes, Shark Drunk: The Art of Catching a Large Shark from a Tiny Rubber Dinghy in a Big Ocean
- 2017: no award
- 2016: Levison Wood, ''Walking the Himalayas''
Travel Blog of the Year
- 2019: no award
- 2018: Dave McClane,
- 2017: no award
- 2016: Lauren Williams,