The short list was announced yesterday for the Stanford Dolman prize, which Stanfords runs in association with the Authors’ Club, and which is now part of a scheme named after the bookseller’s founder: the Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards. The winner will be announced on February 26. The six books are:

Last Days in Old Europe by Richard Bassett (Allen Lane)
Epic Continent by Nicholas Jubber (John Murray)
Underland by Robert Macfarlane (Hamish Hamilton)
The Bells of Old Tokyo by Anna Sherman (Picador)
On the Plain of Snakes by Paul Theroux (Hamish Hamilton)
Lotharingia by Simon Winder (Picador).