The Dolman Short List

Thursday, 9 August 2012

I’m chairing the 2012 Dolman Travel Book of the Year award this year, deciding on the best travel book published in Britain last year. I’ve posted blogs about the awards and, as I worked my way through the entrants and the long list my thoughts on the books entered. Click here for the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th batches of books I’ve done a lot of travel book reading over the past few months!

Now we’re down to the short list:

The six books fighting it out are:

• Harlem is Nowhere, by Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts (Granta)
• Thin Paths; journeys in and around an Italian Village, by Julia Blackburn (Jonathan Cape)
• To a Mountain in Tibet, by Colin Thubron (Vintage)
• To the River: a Journey Beneath the Surface, by Olivia Laing (Canongate)
• White Fever, by Jacek Hugo-Bader (Portobello)
• Wild Coast, by John Gimlette (Profile Books)

I said: “This year’s Dolman Travel Book of the Year award is going to be a difficult choice. We have cities and countries, mountains and rivers, driving and walking, but probably most important we have judges with strong opinions on their personal favourites. So it could be strolling the streets of Harlem in New York or walking the length of the River Ouse in England. Will it be driving to Siberia in a beat up old Soviet era car or exploring the mountain paths around an Italian village? Perhaps circumnavigating a holy mountain in Tibet or exploring the trio of Guyanas in South America? I look forward to finding out on 5 September.”

We’ll decide earlier in the afternoon which book wins and the award will be presented to the winner at a reception at Hatchards Bookshop, 187 Piccadilly, London W1 at 6.30 pm on 5 September.

n W1 at 6.30 pm on 5 September.