Liz Schaffer was an Australian journalist who had freelanced for five years, working with publications like Smith Journal and Yen, when she decided she would only be happy if she gave the thing she really wanted to do a proper shot. In September 2014, she launched Lodestars Anthology from Bristol, England — a tri-annual travel magazine built on a simple, ambitious premise: each issue would be devoted entirely to a single country.
The first issue explored England — an Australian's love letter to her adopted home, presented through rose-tinted glasses and entirely without apology. "We focus on beauty and positive stories," Schaffer explained. "People read magazines as a form of escapism. We decided to be positive and make that our version of authenticity." Subsequent issues have covered Italy, Japan, Canada, Scotland, India, New Zealand, Iceland, and beyond. The eighteenth issue, celebrating a decade of publishing, was dedicated to islands. Each edition reads less like a conventional travel magazine and more like a scrapbook — personal, tactile, designed to be scribbled in and stowed in a suitcase.
The magazine is produced by a small team in Bristol with what Schaffer calls an eye for detail and a love for print. The photography is stunning, the writing is thoughtful and unhurried, and the original illustrations give each issue a handmade quality that digital travel content cannot replicate. There are no investigative features, no political angles — a conscious editorial choice that Schaffer defends with the cheerful conviction that believing the world is beautiful is not naivety but a decision.
Now distributed in over thirteen countries with a growing community of readers who collect every issue, Lodestars Anthology has proven that slow, positive, deeply personal travel journalism has an audience — and that a magazine made in Bristol by an Australian idealist can take you further than any airline.
Explore Lodestars Anthology at <a href="https://lodestarsanthology.co.uk/" target="\_blank">lodestarsanthology.co.uk