About this Event
Join us in conversation with Hilary Bradt and Matthew Parris as we celebrate Hilary’s new memoir Taking The Risk and Bradt Guides 50th anniversary.
This is the unique story of one of the true pioneers of modern travel. An industry trailblazer who co-founded Bradt Guides, join us in conversation with Hilary and Matthew as we looks back on fifty years of escapades, surprises, mishaps, disasters, and triumphs. This engaging memoir Taking the Risk weaves together insightful reflections, hilarious anecdotes, and sometimes heart-stopping moments from her serendipitous adventures in both travel and publishing.
Barely into her twenties, Hilary thumbed lifts around the Middle East for three months before spending four years working and travelling in the US. Between 1973 and 1976 she explored, and worked in, South America and Africa with her then husband George, often journeying through literally uncharted territory in their quest to find new hiking routes. The discovery of an ancient trail over the Andes inspired their first guide book Backpacking Along Ancient Ways in Peru and Bolivia which included the very first descriptions of the Inca Trail. From 1977 to 1980 the pair wrote several backpacking guides and set up Bradt Enterprises, the precursor to Bradt Guides. Finding herself single again in 1980, Hilary continued publishing guides while working as a tour leader, heading treks to South America and creating wildlife tours in Madagascar.
Taking the Risk is the story of an inveterate, intrepid traveller whose joyous exploration of the world has helped to transform the lives of hundreds of thousands of people – anyone who has travelled with a Bradt Guide over the last 50 years. Today, at 82 and still hitchhiking, Hilary reflects: “I’ve been lucky in so many ways, but to have been born with an adventurous spirit and parents who never said ‘Take care’ feels like a special gift. In recent years more and more people seem to be risk averse, denying themselves the joy of the unknown and of serendipitous happenings. Travel can never be without risk – that’s part of its attraction.”
About the speakers:
Hilary Bradt’s career as an occupational therapist ended when potential employers noticed that the time taken off for travel exceeded the periods of employment. In 1963, she hitchhiked to and around the Middle East. In 1969, she spent six months travelling from San Francisco to Rio de Janeiro. With her former husband George, she self-published her first guidebook in 1974 during an extended journey throughout South America, thus founding Bradt Guides.
Travels in Africa in 1974–77 resulted in a backpacking guide to Africa, followed by four more to South America. By 1990, she was established as a publisher, winning IPG/Sunday Times Small Publisher of the Year in 1997. For the first 25 years she combined writing guidebooks and running the company with leading adventure and natural history tours to South America, Africa and Madagascar. Her contributions to tourism have resulted in an MBE, among other major awards.
hilarybradt.com
Matthew Parris was born in Johannesburg in 1949. He graduated from Clare College, Cambridge and went on to study International Relations at Yale. He served as MP for West Derbyshire from 1979 to 1986 before giving up his seat to become presenter of Weekend World, a political interview programme.
His first book, Inca-Kola in 1990 was about his travels in Peru. Among the many books, he has written is Great Parliamentary Scandals and Scorn, a book he has edited of curses, jibes and general invective. His autobiography Chance Witness was published in 2002 and won the Politico’s Book of the Year Award.
He led expeditions to Mount Kilimanjaro in 1967, 1989 and 1996; to Zaire in 1973, the Sahara in 1979 and to Peru and Bolivia on several occasions. In 2000 he spent four months on the remote sub-Antarctic island of Kerguelen.
The event will start promptly at 7.00pm.
Tickets £7
Includes glass of wine/soft drink and a discount off the book when purchased on the evening.
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Stanfords, 7 Mercer Walk, London, United Kingdom
GBP 7.00
