Some of travel writing’s biggest names were at Daunt Books in Marylebone, England, last week for the launch of OxTravels: Meetings With Remarkable Travel Writers – published by Profile Books in support of Oxfam.
Michael Palin, who wrote the introduction to the anthology, took to the stage to toast the OxTravels writers in the audience and said ’It’s a great book for a great cause.’
Oxfam Trading Director David McCullough added, ‘OxTravels is a fantastic book, and we are so happy to be collaborating with Profile again. Profile and Oxfam’s 2009 project Ox-Tales raised £137,000 for Oxfam and we hope that OxTravels will raise even more for our life-changing work around the world.’
OxTravels contributors Aminatta Forna (fresh from winning the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize Book of the Year 2011 and looking forward to the Orange Prize announcement in June – she’s on the shortlist), Sara Wheeler, William Dalyrmple, Oliver Bullough, Tom Bullough, John Gimlette, Victoria Hislop, Michael Jacobs, John Julius Norwich, Sarah Maguire, Nicholas Shakespeare, David Shukman, Colin Thubron and Jasper Winn were all present to toast publication.
OxTravels is BBC Radio 4’s Book of the Week from Monday 30 May until Friday 3 June and there will be four more launch events featuring the contributors at this year’s Hay Festival.
