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A review by erinreadstheworld
Wanderers: A History of Women Walking by Kerri Andrews
4.0
As human beings, walking defines us. We're walkers and we're talkers. Walking can be both a social and introspective pursuit. I know I'm not alone in saying that I get some of my best thinking in while walking.
Walking is something both men and women can do. Yet there's so many things that can prohibit women from walking. That doesn't stop many of us though;; we walk the trails or pound the pavement. But, if you look at the literature of walking, women's experiences are vastly underrepresented.
This is where Wanderers: A History of Women Walking by Kerri Andrews comes in. It's attempting to fill some of the gaps. In Wanderers we gain an insight into the lives of ten women who walked and wrote it. Kerri Andrews also peppers the book with our own experiences walking in the UK, often the same places as our ten women, who span back to Dorothy Wordsworth in the 18th Century to Linda Cracknell in the present day.
Some of the chapters read like an academic text. Which given Kerri Andrews is a university lecturer, and this is a non-fiction book that frequently references other written works, I guess it's just part and parcel. Some of the chapters though, buzzed and the trodden landscapes brimmed with life. I especially liked the chapters on Sarah Stoddart Hazlitt, Virginia Woolf, Nan Shepherd and Anaïs Nin.
I know the book is not trying to represent the history of every woman walker, but the women in the book are all very noticeably white and are mostly British. It does discuss the privileges that allow women to walk (namely money, social privileges and a lack of familial responsibilities - especially in the 18th and 19th) and the fact that the women included in the book are all known for their writing is a privilege in itself. But I would have liked to have heard about more women who weren't from the UK.
I adored the insight into walking and the human experience of walking from the female perspective. I had hoped to like this book more than I did, but some bits felt a little bit too academic for me. Although it did further ignite my love of a long walk in the mountains.
Walking is something both men and women can do. Yet there's so many things that can prohibit women from walking. That doesn't stop many of us though;; we walk the trails or pound the pavement. But, if you look at the literature of walking, women's experiences are vastly underrepresented.
This is where Wanderers: A History of Women Walking by Kerri Andrews comes in. It's attempting to fill some of the gaps. In Wanderers we gain an insight into the lives of ten women who walked and wrote it. Kerri Andrews also peppers the book with our own experiences walking in the UK, often the same places as our ten women, who span back to Dorothy Wordsworth in the 18th Century to Linda Cracknell in the present day.
Some of the chapters read like an academic text. Which given Kerri Andrews is a university lecturer, and this is a non-fiction book that frequently references other written works, I guess it's just part and parcel. Some of the chapters though, buzzed and the trodden landscapes brimmed with life. I especially liked the chapters on Sarah Stoddart Hazlitt, Virginia Woolf, Nan Shepherd and Anaïs Nin.
I know the book is not trying to represent the history of every woman walker, but the women in the book are all very noticeably white and are mostly British. It does discuss the privileges that allow women to walk (namely money, social privileges and a lack of familial responsibilities - especially in the 18th and 19th) and the fact that the women included in the book are all known for their writing is a privilege in itself. But I would have liked to have heard about more women who weren't from the UK.
I adored the insight into walking and the human experience of walking from the female perspective. I had hoped to like this book more than I did, but some bits felt a little bit too academic for me. Although it did further ignite my love of a long walk in the mountains.