Eland Books

Eland Books is an independent publishing house based in London and identified primarily with the recovery and republication of classic travel writing. Established in 1982, the house was created to return significant books that had fallen out of print to readers, particularly works that preserve encounters with places, cultures, and societies undergoing rapid change. Its publishing program treats travel literature not simply as destination writing, but as a record of human experience and a way of encountering unfamiliar societies through the eyes of earlier writers. The company originated in a small office in the attic of John Hatt, a former magazine travel editor, at a Victorian terrace house on Eland Road in Battersea, south-west London. The address supplied the Eland name and reflects the modest, independent beginnings of the enterprise. Rather than building its identity around contemporary mass-market guidebooks, Eland concentrated on a curated backlist: works whose literary, historical, anthropological, or observational value justified renewed attention. This approach positioned the publisher within the traditions of literary reissue publishing, while giving travel books a central place in its catalogue. Eland’s list has grown to approximately 160 titles according to descriptions of the house, and it has earned a strong reputation among critics and book reviewers. The catalogue includes travel memoirs, exploratory narratives, cultural observation, biography, fiction, and related works of place and history. Although the list has broadened beyond travel, travel writing remains its defining area. Authors associated with the catalogue include Nigel Barley, Nicolas Bouvier, Evliya Çelebi, Winston Churchill, E. M. Forster, Martha Gellhorn, Lucie, Lady Duff Gordon, W. H. Hudson, Arthur Koestler, Peter Levi, Norman Lewis, Gavin Maxwell, Peter Mayne, Mary Wortley Montagu, Jan Morris, Dervla Murphy, Irfan Orga, Tony Parker, Dilys Powell, Jonathan Raban, Leonard Woolf, and Ronald Wright. The publisher is run by travel writers and former guidebook authors Barnaby Rogerson and Rose Baring. Their stewardship has maintained the emphasis on carefully selected, durable books rather than a rapidly changing commercial list. Rogerson has described the editorial purpose as preserving the best travel writing while also retaining accounts of societies and ways of life diminished or destroyed by modernization. Rose Baring has characterized the books as an armchair means of encountering other people and cultures. Together, these statements express Eland’s positioning: literary and culturally attentive travel books intended to widen readers’ understanding of the world. Eland’s current identity therefore rests on editorial curation, long-term availability, and the recovery of neglected works. Its books serve both as literary reading and as historical documents, allowing contemporary audiences to compare past descriptions of places with the world that exists today. The house remains active through its travel-books publishing program and continues to operate as an independent London-based publisher.

Eland Books began in 1982 as a small independent publishing venture in south-west London. Its first base was an attic office in the Victorian terrace home of John Hatt, a former magazine travel editor, at 53 Eland Road in Battersea. The location provided the name for the imprint and also reflected the company’s deliberately modest origins outside the structures of large commercial publishing. The house was established with a specific editorial purpose: to bring important travel books that had disappeared from print back to readers. Its approach was archival as well as literary. By reissuing older accounts of journeys, communities, and foreign societies, Eland sought to preserve writing that could otherwise be lost and to maintain access to books whose value extended beyond immediate commercial fashion. Travel writing formed the centre of the programme, but the rationale also encompassed the preservation of cultural memory and historical perspectives on societies changed by modernization. Over time, the list expanded to roughly 160 titles and acquired recognition from critics and reviewers. Eland’s authors and reissued works represent a wide range of periods, regions, and literary forms. The catalogue includes writers such as Nicolas Bouvier, Martha Gellhorn, Jan Morris, Dervla Murphy, Norman Lewis, Jonathan Raban, and Ronald Wright, alongside authors whose work connects travel with anthropology, history, biography, fiction, or political and cultural observation. The result is a list broader than a conventional guidebook catalogue, while remaining strongly associated with literary travel. The business is now run by Barnaby Rogerson and Rose Baring, both of whom have backgrounds connected with travel writing and guidebooks. Under their direction, the publisher has retained its independent character and continued to emphasize selected, durable books rather than high-volume contemporary publishing. Rogerson has framed the mission around preserving outstanding travel literature and accounts of ways of life affected or erased by the modern world. Baring has described the list as offering readers an indirect, reflective way to encounter other people and cultures. Eland’s development is therefore best understood as a sustained backlist and reissue project. Its significance lies less in a sequence of large corporate expansions than in the maintenance of a recognizable editorial programme: recovering neglected books, presenting them to new audiences, and treating travel writing as both literature and a record of social history. Although the list has diversified into biography and fiction, travel remains the house’s principal field. Eland continues to operate from London as an independent publisher serving readers interested in place, culture, history, and the literature of movement.

• 1982

  Eland Books is founded

  [1]Eland Booksen.wikipedia.org

  An independent London publishing house is established with the aim of reviving notable travel books that had gone out of print.

• The catalogue broadens beyond travel

  [1]Eland Booksen.wikipedia.org

  Eland expands its list to include biography and fiction while retaining travel writing as its core publishing area.

• Rogerson and Baring lead the publisher

  [1]Eland Booksen.wikipedia.org

  Former travel guidebook authors Barnaby Rogerson and Rose Baring become the people running the house.

An independent literary publisher specializing in the preservation and revival of classic travel writing, with a broader list spanning cultural history, biography, fiction, and related nonfiction.

• Travel literature · 1982

  Classic travel books

  Eland’s principal product is its curated programme of travel writing reissues. These books include journeys, memoirs, cultural observations, and accounts of societies encountered by earlier travelers. The editorial purpose is to keep significant works available after they have disappeared from mainstream print, allowing them to function both as literature and as historical records of places and communities.

• Nonfiction

  Cultural and anthropological travel writing

  A substantial part of the list explores cultural difference, social life, and the practices of communities encountered abroad. These books are presented as accessible forms of cultural and anthropological inquiry rather than as technical academic studies, giving general readers historical perspectives on societies and ways of living.

• Literary publishing

  Biography, fiction, and related literary nonfiction

  Although travel remains the defining field, Eland’s catalogue also includes biography, fiction, and other literary works connected with place, history, and cultural experience. This broader selection supports the publisher’s interest in preserving books whose enduring value may be literary, historical, or documentary rather than limited to conventional travel writing.

• Travel and wartime memoir

  Naples '44

  Norman Lewis’s Naples '44 is associated with the Eland catalogue and exemplifies the house’s interest in books that combine personal observation with a historical account of a place and period. The work records Naples during the closing stages of the Second World War and reflects Eland’s wider practice of preserving travel-related and documentary writing for new readers.

1. 1Eland Booksen.wikipedia.org
2. 2Eland Books official websitetravelbooks.co.uk