The short list for Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year, which the bookseller Stanfords runs in association with the Authors’ Club, was announced this afternoon. The eight books on it are:

Without Ever Reaching the Summit: a Himalayan Journey by Paolo Cognetti (Harvill Secker)
The Border — A Journey Around Russia… by Erika Fatland (MacLehose Press)
Shadow City: A Woman Walks Kabul by Taran N Khan (Chatto & Windus)
Travelling While Black: Essays Inspired by a Life on the Move by Nanjala Nyabola (Hurst)
Wanderland: A Search for Magic in the Landscape by Jini Reddy (Bloomsbury)
The Lost Pianos of Siberia by Sophy Roberts (Doubleday)
Along the Amber Route by CJ Schuler (Sandstone Press)
Owls of the Eastern Ice by Jonathan C Slaght (Allen Lane).

Writers short-listed for the Bradt New Travel Writer of the Year award, for which entrants were asked to submit an article on the theme “I’d love to go back…”, are: Mark Jones; Anisa King; Tom Swithenbank; and Jennifer Thomson. Their pieces can all be read on the Bradt Guides website.