We have all come to know Bradt Guides as a publisher of guides to exotic and out-of-the-way destinations. But being exotic isn't Bradt Guides' criterium in choosing their new titles. Nor is their aim to write a guide for every corner of the world. They would rather look for quality travel writing. So a guide to Paris, Lille and Brussels is only apparently an exception within their catalogue.
The Bradt Travel Guide, Paris, Lille, Brussels: The Bradt Guide to Eurostar Cities, was launched in Lille in 2002. Travelling in Eurostar's comfortable First Class compartment with an agreeable group of journalists and booksellers, I reflected on the changes I'd experienced, both in publishing and transport, in the 27 years since the company was founded in Boston, Massachusetts.
In the early days my American husband George and I commuted between Boston and Buckinghamshire, and I did the selling in Europe. This meant buying a Eurail Pass in the USA and getting on the boat train at Waterloo with a bagful of book samples. Being seasick on the ferry crossing the English Channel was an inevitable part of the trip. Once I'd arrived at a city I'd find a phone box with a copy of the Yellow Pages and, having learned the word for bookshop in every European language, telephone around for appointments. I was surprisingly successful.
Laurence Phillips, author of Paris, Lille, Brussels had a similarly unconventional but successful introduction to Europe. "At the age of 18 I found a loophole in a Persil washing powder promotion and bought myself 30 return tickets to Paris at £15 a time; thus began my love affair with that city. I discovered Lille by accident after taking the wrong ferry and ending up in Calais rather than Boulogne. With no money for the train fare I hitchhiked, spending the night in Lille; I was totally smitten. I first spent time in Belgium after being shipwrecked in Ostende in the gales that sunk Radio Caroline". A committed Europhile, Laurence has written a personal, affectionate and witty guide to his favourite cities, all now within easy reach of London, thanks to Eurostar.
Such experiences, from publisher and author, encapsulate Bradt Travel Guides. From the start we have been eccentric! There are lots of ways of achieving a goal, and the unconventional methods are often the most successful. And the most enjoyable. Since the first ever Bradt guide Backpacking Along Ancient Ways in Peru and Bolivia was written on a river barge in Bolivia and typed on a borrowed typewriter in an isolated jungle town, we have eschewed the usual ways of doing things. We publish guides to unusual or newly emerging destinations or we explore fresh aspects of popular places. It's all a question of enthusiasm and knowledge. Bradt authors are passionate about little-known places and want to share their discoveries, so we published the first widely-available guides to destinations such as Vietnam, Mozambique, Madagascar, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Rwanda, Cape Verde Islands, Uganda and Zanzibar. Recently we have invited readers in to our eccentric world through the popular Eccentric Britain, Eccentric America and Eccentric London.
Natural history is one of my enthusiasms so we have added wildlife guides to Madagascar, the Galapagos, the Arctic and Antarctic to our list; each year we run a travel writing competition in conjunction with BBC Wildlife Magazine. I first explored South America on foot, so we are particularly strong on backpacking and trekking guides to that continent.
Back in the 1980s it was even eccentric to consider the ethics of tourism. Travelling, as I did, as a tour leader to the same places year after year, I saw for myself how unthinking behaviour by tourists can effect the local people and erode their cultural values. I became a founder member of the charity Tourism Concern and, with other authors, began to incorporate advice on responsible travel into our guide books. Recently we have gone a step further and introduced a section on "Giving Something Back" which describes small local charities that welcome donations and visits from tourists. A visit to a centre that works with street kids, for instance, can start a relationship which continues long after the traveller returns home. For many, it is one of the most rewarding aspects of their trip - and they write and tell us so.
I have grown up with the company. The idiosyncratic "Little Yellow Book" that I wrote and published in 1974 has matured into Peru and Bolivia: the Bradt Trekking Guide (7th edition); the month-long sales trips in Europe have been replaced by efficient distributors, and anonymity by the Sunday Times Small Publisher Award. Stanfords has been part of the picture from the start. I remember George returning from an important trip to London to try to sell our first book,
"I went to Stanfords" he told me.
"Great! What did they say?".
"They asked what discount we give".
"Discount? What does that mean?"
"I didn't know either so I said 'Oh, the usual' and this guy said '32%'? So I said 'yes'. And now we know!".
We have indeed come a long way!
Author: Hilary Bradt
Date: 1 January 2002