Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Wellington author Peter Riordan wins the Travcom Travel Book of the Year Award


Wellington author Peter Riordan won the Travcom Travel Book of the Year Award for Gods of the Stones – Travels in the Middle East (David Bateman Publishing).  

 Auckland’s Charles Anderson won the Cathay Pacific Travel Writer of the Year Award and Timaru’s Natasha Martin took the Cathay Pacific Travel Photographer of the Year Award, presented last night  at the Travel Media Awards Gala Dinner at the Heritage Auckland’s Grand Tearoom.

 
The Cathay Pacific Travel Media and Travel Book awards are organised by Travcom (New Zealand Travel Communicators) to celebrate excellence in travel writing and photography. 

Anderson took top spot with his story Horse Sense published in NZ Life and Leisure magazine.  Anderson is an Auckland-based writer currently working for the Sunday Star Times.  He has travelled extensively through Indonesia, India, South America and Africa.  His writing and photography have been published in magazines and newspapers throughout the country.  Last year he was named junior reporter of the year at the Canon Media Awards and has been a finalist in the junior feature writing category two years in a row. 

'Travel writing should be about more than the personal experience of being in a place,' said chief writing judge Chris Moss, editor of Time Out magazine's travel section and a regular contributor to the Daily Telegraph. 'The best travel journalism also teaches something, takes the reader on an inner journey, and focuses on a theme, idea or area in a fresh way - and it must also be well-written. Charles Anderson's 'Horse Sense' took me back to a place I have visited and showed me its people, its culture, its economy and its Horse Fair in an original and engaging way. A deeply enjoyable read and a deserved winner in a year in which there were several very strong submissions.'

Chris Moss judged all travel writing categories excluding the New Travel Writer of the Year award, which was judged by Susan Buckland.  She is an award-winning travel writer whose stories and photographs are published in New Zealand and overseas.   The winner of the AA Directions New Travel Writer of the Year Award was David Lillie with An Icy Embrace.

The winner of Cathay Pacific Travel Photographer of the Year Award is Natasha Martin, a photographer for the Timaru Herald.  She went on a Rotary Group Study Exchange trip to India last year where she shot the portfolio that won her the overall award.

The photography awards were judged by: Auckland photographer Julia Thorne, a three-decade survivor of the freelance photography and journalism world and one of the early instigators of the Travcom Photography Awards; Gareth Eyres, freelance editorial and travel photographer, and twice previous winner of the Cathay Pacific Travel Photographer of the Year Award; and Bela Trussell-Cullen, a veteran magazine designer and art director, who has worked for many years on Metro, North & South and is currently art director of New Idea magazine.

Wellington author Peter Riordan won the top prize at the tenth annual Travcom Travel Book of the Year Award for Gods of the Stones – Travels in the Middle East (David Bateman Publishing).  Christchurch writer Pat Deavoll received a Highly Commended certificate for Wind from a Distant Summit (Craig Potton Publishing).
Riordan has been a previous runner-up of this award in 2007, with his book Strangers in My Sleeper. 

The Travcom Travel Book of the Year Award was judged by: writer, editor, book promoter, and teacher Dorothy Vinicombe; Paul Hewlett, a writer and public relations consultant from Auckland and a member of the Board of New Zealand Book Month; and Finlay Macdonald, journalist, broadcaster, former editor of the New Zealand Listener and former commissioning editor with Penguin New Zealand.

The awards were hosted by Te Radar (Andrew J Lumsden), award winning satirist, documentary maker, writer, stage and screen director, failed gardener, television presenter and amateur historian.  

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