Travelling in India is an assault on the senses. First time visitors can find themselves overwhelmed; by the vibrant colours, the smell of poverty, a claustrophobic feeling amongst the teeming crowds. And yet many of us are enticed to revisit; charmed by the people, attracted to the intensity.I revisit my sensory journey to India through the eyes of fictional characters and enthralling tales that are based there. You can escape the grey and dreary UK weather and enjoy an Indian summer through this sample of captivating books set in God’s Own Country. More...

Can there be many jobs as enjoyable as writing a brand-new travel guide? Being paid to be on holiday must be one of the top dream jobs.

Twenty-two-year-olds with a passion for travel and an aversion to 9–5 office work view it that way. But as anyone who has ever written a travel guide will tell you, it’s rarely about staying in drop-dead gorgeous beach resorts, journeying down Route 66 on a Harley Davidson or travelling through Russia in a first-class compartment of the trans-Siberian Railway. It’s much more about sheer hard work.

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The winner of the 2009 Bradt Travel Guides/Independent on Sunday Travel Writing Competition was announced at the Award Ceremony held at Stanfords, London.

Hilary Bradt, Chairman of Bradt Travel Guides, said the quality of the writing this year surpassed all previous years making the task of choosing the short-listed six finalists extremely difficult.

Well known journalist and travel writer Matthew Parris had the unenviable task of choosing the overall winner. More...

The winner of the Independent on Sunday/ Bradt Travel Writing Competition was announced at the awards ceremony at our store in London last night (22 July). Kate Megeary, an as yet unpublished writer, wowed the judges with 'The Perfection of Improvisation' and won the grand prize of a trip to Kyrgyzstan and a commission from The Independent.

The theme this year was "The Heart of the City" and more than 200 More...

The Independent on Sunday/ Bradt Travel Writing Competition 2008 awards ceremony is soon to be held at Stanfords’ store in London. Below are the six finalists’ entries.

The theme this year is "The Heart of the City" and more than 200 entries were submitted for the competition. Douglas Schatz, managing director of Stanfords, will choose the winner out of these final six. At the same time Jon Lorie, of Travellers' Tales, will reveal his award to the best unpublished writer.

The Commute

Lucy Clark, unpublished writer

It was rush hour. The city reverberated with a cacophony of sounds quite unlike those heard in any other on the planet. The noisy squawk of three green parrots flying overhead, the prehistoric roar of howler monkeys, the morning call of the motmot, the aracari, the flycatcher. The undergrowth buzzed and hummed with activity.

Still only six-thirty and it was already unpleasantly warm. The sun crept up over the jungle canopy menacingly, promising more heat to come. The city steamed. I sweated in my cotton shirt and a dazzlingly blue butterfly landed briefly on my arm to enjoy the salty skin. Breakfast on the run. The sunlight filtered through giant ceiba trees, casting sky-scraper shadows on the More...

Here at Stanfords we have just unveiled exciting new additions to our shelves – Stanfords Travel Classics.

As a specialist travel bookseller we were inspired to put together a collection of the travel books that we really love, so we have launched a series that republishes some of the finest historical travel writing in our own branded paperbacks.

Our expert readers have combed the archives of historical travel literature to find the very best writing from the very best writers to launch the series. We’ve just produced our first 10 titles and they include famous literary names such as Robert Louis Stevenson, Henry James, Mark Twain and Edith Wharton, as well as classic tales of exploration and adventure from Ernest Shackleton, Mungo Park, Isabella Bird and Joshua Slocum.

We wanted to republish these titles using a striking contemporary design to demonstrate that this historical writing can be as fresh today as when it was first printed. We worked with expert book designer, Adrian Sharman of StudioAS, who came up with some wonderful fresh More...