They specialize in selling maps, guidebooks, and other travel-related items, and were founded in 1853 by Edward Stanford, making them the oldest continuously operating business in the United Kingdom. The flagship store, formerly located at 118 Long Acre, has moved to 7 Mercer Walk in Covent Garden, London. The store is proud of its extensive inventory, which is sourced by experts from around the world.
For over a hundred years, they have served as the starting point for countless would-be explorers and armchair vacationers. Amy Johnson, David Livingstone, Captain Robert Falcon Scott, Ernest Shackleton, Florence Nightingale, Ranulph Fiennes, Bill Bryson, Michael Palin, and even Sherlock Holmes are among their past and present customers.
Stanfords Traveling Books
Minarets in the Mountains: A Journey into Muslim Europe
The Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year was shortlisted for the 2022 Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards by the Authors’ Club.
An enchanted and enlightening travelogue of a part of Europe that is rarely reported on and is in danger of being forgotten. A different Europe. An obscure Europe that many deny even exists. Europe’s Muslims
Tharik Hussain, a Londoner, takes his wife and two young daughters on a trip through the Western Balkans, which is home to Europe’s largest indigenous Muslim population, and other regions of Eastern Europe, where Islam has shaped the landscape and the culture for over 500 years. Meeting Muslims with blond hair and blue eyes, exploring mystic Islamic lodges clinging to the sides of mountains, and praying in mosques older than the Sistine Chapel, he paints a picture of a hidden Muslim Europe, a thriving place with a breathtaking history, spellbinding culture, and distinct identity.
Besides being the first travelogue written in English by a Muslim author on the topic, Minarets in the Mountains delves into the origins of Islamophobia in Europe. As the story progresses, Tharik and his family discover important truths about themselves and their place in the world as British, European, and Muslim people. They follow in the footsteps of the famous Ottoman traveler Evliya Celebi, whose journeys serve as a reminder that Islam is as integral to European culture as Christianity, Judaism, and the pagan religions.
This is a vivid reimagining of a region’s cultural heritage, like William Dalrymple’s In Xanadu, revealing long-lost Muslim communities, empires, and their rulers; and like Kapka Kassabova’s Border, it is a quest that compels us to question what constitutes their individual identities and, more importantly, who gets to make those determinations.
The Edge of the Plain: How Borders Make and Break Our World
There have never been so many international boundaries in human history as there are now.
In this book, James Crawford argues that their incessant need to create and maintain borders has led us to a critical juncture, and that they are now in the final stages of a process that began thousands of years ago.
Crawford traces the history of borders from the first known boundary marker to the virtual frontiers of the internet and the shifting geography of a world beset by climate change in their precarious and uncertain future. Along the way, he visits many different types of borders, both old and new, including a melting border high in the glacial landscapes of the Austrian-Italian Alps and the only place on land where Europe and Africa meet; the ‘Walled Off Hotel,’ a work of art by the anonymous street artist Banksy in the troubled West Bank; and the Sonoran Desert and the fault lines that separate the United States from Mexico.
The Edge of the Plain combines history, travel, and reportage to examine the ways in which borders have expanded and transformed to dominate their lives. There will inevitably be casualties when the forces of nationalism, climate change, globalization, technology, and mass migration meet with the barriers that are becoming increasingly difficult to breach. And Crawford wonders if they have reached a tipping point where they can finally put aside their differences.
The Amur River: Between Russia and China
The Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year was selected as the winner of the 2022 Edward Stanford Travel Awards by the Authors’ Club.
Excellent performance from Thubron. Detail-rich, beautifully written, and brimming with insights and characters that bring a complicated part of the world to life. A. MICHAEL PALIN
“A masterpiece”; “unforgettable”; “William Dalrymple”; “Antony Beevor.”
A new journey from their greatest travel writer, and it promises to be dramatic and ambitious.
The Amur River, which has its source in the mountains of Mongolia and flows through Siberia and into the Pacific Ocean, serves as a contentious border between Russia and China. This frontier has more fortifications than any other on the planet.
Colin Thubron, in his eightieth year, embarks on a dramatic and often perilous journey from the hidden source of the Amur to its massive mouth. While being pursued by the local police and suffering from an injury, he travels along the Russian and Chinese coastlines. When he reaches the dead end of the river, a new and crucial world opens up before him.
The Wilderness Cookbook: A Wild Camper’s Guide to Eating Well
Phoebe Smith, an outdoor expert, is back with her best advice on how to cook in the wilderness using only a single stove, along with fifty recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert, and snacks, following the massive success of her previous titles, Wilderness Weekends (2015) and Britain’s Best Small Hills (2016). She also includes a wonderful impression of the setting in each dish, whether it be a mountainous landscape, a coastal setting, a forest, or a river. This ground-breaking book details the best practices for hiking, camping, and cooking in the great outdoors.
Wilderness travel is amazing, but the food you eat there is often boring: pre-packaged, dehydrated camping meals loaded with salt and artificial coloring. This book is the first of its kind, and it teaches you how to make tasty food with minimal resources and minimal weight, so you can go wild camping with confidence that you’ll never go hungry.
In addition to recipes, Bradt’s Wilderness Cookbook features information on how to stay safe in the wilderness, how to better understand the countryside, and how to make things like tools and shelters out of found materials. Foraging fundamentals such as finding sphagnum moss to clean your pots, cockles for your stew, and bilberries for your porridge are discussed as well.
From Deviled Eggs in Disguise or Lemon & Cinnamon Muffins for breakfast to Brilliant Burritos or Cracking Couscous for lunch, Rosemary & Garlic Mushrooms for dinner, and, to round things out, Real Ale Pancakes or Baked Apple & Ginger Bombs for dessert, this uplifting new title has a recipe to fit the moment, no matter where you are, what terrain you’re covering, or what season it is.
Use Bradt’s Wilderness Cookbook to ensure that the wild food you prepare provides maximum flavor and energy with minimal effort, gear, and weight.
One, Place de l’Eglise: A Year or Two in a French Village
The relationship between an English family and a centuries-old French house is stormy, poetic, and tragic. Dolby describes the adoption of 1 Place de l’Eglise into the family with a sometimes shaky but always endearing enthusiasm. Insatiable in his curiosity, he leads us down many a byway, expanding the ageless tale of what it is about France that never gets old.
Reply to Michael Palin
Around the same time that King Harold was shot by an arrow and some women in the south of France wove a tapestry, a man and his friends in the south of France decided to construct a home next to a church. A lot of stuff went down in that house over the years, but it never made it into the records.
After the turn of the century, 1 Place de l’Eglise had fallen into disrepair and was largely abandoned by the turn of the first century a.d. A fertilizer bag was jammed into a broken window, the mortar in the old walls was crumbling, and the roof was leaking. There was hardly any electricity, the plumbing was limited to a single lead pipe, and the cellar doors had rotted. Finally, it was in place. Causses-et-Veyran villagers locked the shutters and doors as they walked to the church next door.
Then, a Londoner who considered himself poor bought it along with his wife. At first glance, they fell head over heels in love.
The house becomes more like a home as time goes on. They manage the jargon, the flooding, and the icy winters. And they do end up settling down, locating a bar, bakery, and construction company of their own (ignore him at their peril).
Slowly the family and the locals get to know one another and these busy English discover slower joys – the scent of thyme and lavender, the warmth of sun on stone walls, nights hung with stars, silence in the hills, the importance of history and memory, the liberation of laughter and the secrets of fig jam.
1 Place de L’Eglise is a love letter – to a house, a village, a country – from an outsider who discovers you can never be a stranger when you’re made to feel so at home. Old houses never belong to people.
Why shop from Stanfords?
Shopping from Stanfords is a great choice for anyone looking for quality products. They have an extensive array of books, maps, and travel guides to suit any need or interest. From printed maps of the world and the latest guidebooks to fascinating photography collections, if you’re searching for something special then Stanfords UK is sure to have it! The team at Stanfords UK ensure that only the finest products make it onto their shelves. Not only do they continuously stock new items, they also take great care in protecting customers, offering safe and secure payment options as well as reliable delivery services that mean you can get your order quickly and easily. With great customer service and a selection of unbeatable products at unbeatable prices, shopping from Stanfords UK guarantees an enjoyable experience every time.
