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. 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 ã1,000 to ã2,500 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 ã5,000 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
2024
- Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, A Stranger in Your Own City: Travels in the Middle EastâÂÂs Long War
- Alice Albinia, The Britannias: An ArchipelagoâÂÂs 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 RussiaâÂÂs Haunted Hinterland
2023
- 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 ItalyâÂÂs 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 CroatiaâÂÂs Hinterland
"Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year":
2022
2021
- 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
2019
- 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
2017 no award
2016
2015
- 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
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
Edward Stanford Outstanding Contribution to Travel Writing award
A lifetime achievement award for travel writing.
Fiction with a Sense of Place
Children's Travel Book of the Year
- 2024: Mya-Rose Craig, Flight: Explore the secret routes of the skies from a birdâÂÂs-eye viewâ¦
- 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 (Editor), Tom Maday (Editor) , 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
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
Notes
External links