Monday evening was spent at the Royal Geographical Society, for the awards ceremony. The official list and photos are here.

Susan, my Mum and my brother Ian were able to join me, which was great. The RGS hosted a very good event, with a lunch reception, then a talk about some of the historical artefacts they possess, followed by the more formal events. They have some remarkable things in their collection, including the hats that Livingstone and Stanley were wearing when they met at Lake Tanganyika and remnants of the last meal Scott and his colleagues had in the Antarctic.

The awards ceremony was hosted by RGS president Michael Palin, who came across as having a genuine interest in geography. As the recipient of the Murchison award, for publications (mainly Terror and Territory), I had the unenviable task of giving a speech of thanks on behalf of a large group of the award winners. The recipients of the medals gave their own speeches, but I had to find a way to link some very disparate people together in my five-minute speech. Those people who kindly came to talk to me afterwards seemed to think I had done the best possible given the challenge.

I have very little recollection of what Palin said in my commendation – I’d been sent all the others in order to prepare my words, but not of course my own – as I was getting ready to give a speech which I was more than a little nervous about. Fortunately all the speeches were recorded and will appear in The Geographical Journal in the autumn.