Lifetime Achievement Award for Hilary
Contributors are not employed, compensated or governed by TD, opinions and statements are from the contributor directly
Shocked and stunned, for once Hilary Bradt was genuinely lost for words as it was announced she had been chosen to receive the British Guild of Travel Writers Lifetime Achievement Award. The presentation was made by Chairman Melissa Shales at the Guild’s 13th Annual Gala Awards Dinner at the Marriott Grosvenor Square, London, on November 8, on the eve of World Travel Market.
Still pioneering after 35 years, Hilary led Bradt to become one of the industry’s most highly regarded publishers, seeing the company’s uniquely personal guides lauded by travellers from Dervla Murphy and Kate Humble to Sir David Attenborough and Michael Palin. In 1997 The Sunday Times voted Bradt Small Publisher of the Year, and in 2008 Wanderlust readers saw Bradt beat Lonely Planet and Rough Guides to win the magazine’s Top Travel Guide Series award.
Indeed, Hilary has led by example, writing 11 guidebooks herself and winning the BGTW’s Guidebook of the Year Award. Outside travel publishing Hilary is equally known for her commitment to sustainable tourism initiatives. She continues to fund raise and campaign on behalf of Madagascar’s street kids and to promote many other worthy projects, including the winner of the BGTW’s Best New Overseas Tourism Project Award 2009: ConCERT Cambodia (Connecting Communities, Environment & Responsible Tourism). ConCERT Cambodia is a one-stop information service NGO that allows tourists to volunteer or contribute to local projects of their choice during their travels in Cambodia.
It was in recognition of these activities that she received an MBE for ‘services to charity and tourism’ in 2009. Perhaps even more telling was her place on this year’s Independent on Sunday ‘Happy List’ (alongside, among others, Sir David Attenborough and Thomas the Tank Engine); this list - published as an alternative to the annual ‘Rich List’ - aims to ‘celebrate some of the people in Britain who give back, enhance the lives of others, and realise that, in an acquisitive society, there’s a crying need for values other than materialism’.
Two years ago, Hilary stepped back from the helm of the company she founded in 1974 to enjoy retirement in Devon. However, her energy remains undiminished. Returned recently from a stint travelling in Cambodia, she has since thrown herself into writing Bradt’s new Go Slow Devon and Exmoor - despite the title, there’s clearly no imminent danger of Hilary slowing down at all.
Comments are closed.