The Thomas Cook Travel Book Award 2005 will take place on September 15th

The 2004 winner of the Thomas Cook Travel Book Awards was today announced as Richard Grant, for his book Ghost Riders. The £10,000 prize was presented by Kate Adie at a celebration lunch at The Hempel Hotel, London. The event was attended by key members of the publishing trade and press, as well as senior members of Thomas Cook’s management team.

A second award presentation was also made at the event, to mark the 25th year of the Travel Book Awards. This was a £3,000 prize for outstanding contribution to travel writing, and was awarded to author Jan Morris.

Dr John Hemming, chair of the judges, said:
“Judging so many fine books was very difficult, but we chose Ghost Riders because Richard Grant really travelled for years as one of the thousands of eccentric nomads that are unique to American society. Grant writes superbly, in a punchy, youthful style. And he weaves excellent history about earlier nomads into his narrative. It's a remarkable first book: I couldn't put it down.”

On Jan Morris, Dr Hemming said:
“ During the 25 years that Thomas Cook has been awarding its prestigious Prize, Jan Morris has written about places all over the world, particularly cities. Her writing has been consistently excellent. So she is a worthy winner of this Special Prize for a lifetime of travel writing that sets a standard for all other authors.”

Richard Grant is a British freelance writer based in Arizona. Ghost Riders is his first book. The following is an excerpt:

‘Where would you choose to die if you had the choice between a hospital bed or the middle of nowhere? A few years ago I was driving along 1-50, a two-lane blacktop that crosses the deserts of central Utah and Nevada and calls itself ‘The Loneliest Highway in America’. There is a ninety-mile stretch between towns or gas stations, and somewhere in the middle of that stretch I pulled over to take a photograph of a weathered and improbable sign: ‘ALFALFA For Sale’. Curiosity led me down a dirt road to a few abandoned buildings and an alfalfa field returned to desert.

Lying in the shade of one of the buildings was an old highway drifter with his head resting on a small backpack. His eyes were closed, his lips were cracked, he lay very still and I thought he was dead. As I bent over him to see if he was breathing his eyelids moved and opened, and he made a weak sound in his throat. I rushed back to the truck to get water.

I offered him a drink and he took a sip. Did he want food? Did he want a ride? Did he want an ambulance? In a cracked whisper he told me to go away and leave him alone. What would you have done? I left the plastic jug of water beside him and drove away, and I did not alert the authorities when I got to the next town.’

Shortlisted for the 2004 award were:
Tibet Tibet, Patrick French (Harper Perennial)
The Factory of Light, Michael Jacobs (John Murray)
Beyond the Coral Sea, Michael Moran (Flamingo)
Running with Reindeer, Roger Took (John Murray)
Hearing Birds Fly, Louisa Waugh (Little, Brown)