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 (2006-2014). 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.[1] 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.[1] 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.[1][2] Beginning in 2015, a new sponsor Stanfords, a travel book store, was established along with an increase to £5,000 for the winner.
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
= winner
Stanford Travel Book of the Year
2023[3][4]
- 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
Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year
2022[5]
2021[6][7]
- 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
2020[8]
2019[9][10]
- 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 (translated from Polish by Antonia Lloyd Jones)
- Daniel Trilling, Lights in the Distance: Exile and Refuge at the Borders of Europe
2018 [11][12]
- 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
2017 no award[13]
2016[14][15]
- 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 (and other stories): 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
2015[16][17]
- 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
Dolman Best Travel Book Award
2014[18]
2013[19]
2012[citation needed]
2011[citation needed]
2010[21]
- 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
2009[22]
2008[citation needed]
2007[citation needed]
- 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
2006[citation needed]
A lifetime achievement award for travel writing.
- 2022 Stuart Dunn, Only Us (Photography Travel book of the Year)
- 2022 Matt Brown, Rhys B. Davies, illustrated by Mike Hall, Atlas of Imagined Places: From Lilliput to Gotham City’ (Illustrated Travel book of the Year)
- 2019 Huw Lewis-Jones, The Writer's Map: An Atlas of Imaginary Lands[9][10]
- 2018 Londonist Mapped by AA Publishing[11][12]
- 2017 no award [13]
- 2016 Malachy Tallack & Katie Scott, The Un-Discovered Islands[15]
- 2021 Yasmin Khan, Ripe Figs: Recipes and Stories from the Eastern Mediterranean
- 2020 Eleanor Ford, Fire Islands[23]
- 2019 Caroline Eden, Black Sea: Dispatches and Recipes, Through Darkness and Light[9][10]
- 2018 Bart van Olphen, Bart's Fish Tales[11][12]
- 2017 no award [13]
- 2016 Tessa Kiros, Provence to Pondicherry[15]
- 2017-2019 no award
- 2016 James Cheshire & Oliver Uberti, Where the Animals Go[15]
- 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[9][10]
- 2018 Alan Packer, The Village Sledge Run[11][12]
- 2017 no award [13]
- 2016 Dom Tulett, The Tiger's Tail[15]
Award year shifted from being the year the books were published to the year the award was presented.