The Virago Book Of Women Travellers.

Among the extraordinary women whose writing is included here are Gertrude Bell, Rose Macaulay, Mary McCarthy, Vita Sackville-West, Freya Stark, Edith Wharton and Mary Wollstonecraft. Some are observers of the world in which they wander, their prose rich in description, remrkable in detail. Mary McCarthy conveys the vitality of Florence while Willa Cather's essay in Lavandou foreshadows her descriptions of the French countryside in later novels. Others are more active participants in the culture they are visiting, such as Leila Phillip who harvests rice with Japenese women or Isabella Bird who fell in love with Rocky Mountain Jim. Whether it is curiosity about the world, a thirst for adventure or escape from personal tragedy - three hundred years of wanderlust are captured here by women who travelled the world.