Hilary Bradt, Co-Founder of Bradt Guides, on 50 Years of Travel, Publishing, and Writing

Hilary Bradt MBE is one of the living legends of the travel writing world. In 1974, she co-founded Bradt Guides, which thrives today as one of the best-loved brands in travel writing and independent publishing with over 200 titles in print. An award-winning writer and an expert on Madagascar, Hilary has been appointed Officier de l’Ordre de Madagascar – the Malagasy equivalent of an OBE, in recognition of four decades’ pioneering promotion of the country’s tourism potential. She has also been appointed Member of the British Empire; an honour she received with characteristic humility ("I wondered what I’d done to upset Gordon Brown" she wrote near the time). Hilary generously joined the Travel Writing Podcast to share her journey from the early days stapling together the first copies of her first guidebook to how Bradt is adapting to the changing needs of readers in the digital world. We discussed Hilary's article in the recent British Guild of Travel Writers' anthology, Around the World in 65 Years, where Hilary takes a thought-provoking perspective on what ethical travel really means. We spoke about Bradt Guides' new Journey Books imprint, and why she still believes in the enduring power of print.