Wild Women

A collection of the greatest women’s travel writing selected by journalist and presenter Mariella Frostrup.

From Constantinople to Crimea; from Antarctica to the Andes. Throughout history adventurous women have made epic, record-breaking journeys under perilous circumstances. Whether escaping constricted societies back home or propelled by a desire for independence, footloose females have ventured to the four corners of the earth and recorded their exploits for posterity.

For too long their triumphs have been overshadowed by those of their male counterparts, whose honourable failures make bigger news. In curating this collection of first-hand accounts, broadcaster, writer and traveller Mariella Frostrup puts female explorers back on the map. Her selection includes explorers from the 1700s to the present day, from iconic heroines to lesser-known eccentrics, celebrating 300 years of wild women and their amazing adventures over land, sea and air.

Reviews for Wild Women:
‘A stirring whistle-stop tour, led by women who often risked disapproval in leaving home to roam the world’ Vanity Fair
‘Like any good travel book, Wild Women succeeds in casting the reader’s mind off on journeys of its own, inspiring fresh plans and what the Germans call Fernweh, or a longing for faraway places’ TLS
‘Required reading for anyone who assumed that ‘the road less travelled’ was a solely masculine preserve’ Sunday Independent

Author Biography

Mariella Frostrup is one of the UK’s leading journalists, broadcasters and critics. She was the presenter of Open Book on Radio 4 for eighteen years before moving to Times Radio, and has judged the Booker Prize.