When I announced the launch of the inaugural annual £10,000 Sherborne Prize for Travel Writing, I hoped that it would spark renewed interest in books that encourage understanding between peoples and across societies, countering the division and isolation of the present day. Nine months on, I couldn’t have wished for a more enthusiastic and generous response from readers, authors and publishers.
This week the judges – acclaimed travel writer and novelist Colin Thubron, award-winning author and bestselling biographer Sara Wheeler, and literary agent at Aitken Alexander Associates Emma Paterson – announced the six shortlisted books for 2026. Big congratulations to authors Howard Amos, Kapka Kassabova, Robert Macfarlane, Joanna Pocock, Jen Stout and Adam Weymouth. Between them their extraordinary books sweep from a summer spent with the last moving pastoralists in Europe, cross the States from Detroit to Los Angeles by Greyhound bus, hunker down under fire in Ukraine, proclaim rivers to be living beings, walk across the Alps in the footsteps of a wolf, and trip along the edges of Russia. As Chair of Judges Colin said, ‘In its vigour and diversity alone, our shortlist is a striking tribute to the indispensable value of travel and the seriousness of its writing. Travel writing has never been richer or more versatile.’
As well as the boldness of the author’s ambition and the quality of writing, the judges placed emphasis on books that enable readers to cross borders and so to draw together, on the page at least, our divided worlds.
I’m thrilled that the winner will be revealed at a special event on the morning of Sunday 12th April 2026 at this year’s Sherborne Travel Writing Festival. Come join us on the 10th -12th April weekend and take part in the ecstatic cheering!
