Wanderers: A History of Women Walking Paperback – 12 July 2021

A deeply contemplative experience for the reader whilst discovering details from the past. Whilst absorbing the past experiences of a range of walkers - many new to me - this book also makes you consider your own reasons and enjoyment for walking, whilst giving a broad scope of past experiences. Personal reminiscences by the author are poignant and stimulate a philosophical element to the consideration of the nature of walking and bring outdoors. Highly interesting for those who have newly discovered the joy of walking in lockdown, and those who have held this passion in their lives for many years. A joyful book to read but also ‘feel’ with contemplation and mindfulness about how to experience walking - the inspirations of solitude and the happiness of companionship. A book to buy for good friends.

Bought for a friend and she loved - would be a interesting read for all women who love walking ..

I have always turned to walking and being outside as my hero. Through childhood into adulthood it’s always been there for me, walking is spiritual.The book is beautifully written brought me to tears how familiar my thoughts were to others that came before me. If you enjoy hiking or just walking this is a really wonderful read as another reviewer mentioned it inspires to put your walking boots on.

This book beautifully follows the journeys of women who wander through time. Andrews' style of writing is vibrant, creating beautiful images. Would highly recommend this book, especially to anyone who enjoys the outdoors.

I hink this book reads like a thesis except there was not one map to represent the areas the author was talking about These was necessary to locate where the author was referring to. There was a lot of repitiion in the prose. Perhaps a book for those who are avid walkers. Although I finished it I would not recommend it for usual reading.

Love, love this book.I now go for longer walks and with far more enthusiasm and confidence than before.Walking clears my mind and helps me think coherently. Reading this I now know I am not alone and encouraging other women to walk is now a mission!!!

Excellent read

Bought this for a friend who loves rambling. She couldn't put it down

The writing is lovely; the author takes us in different journeys by different women walkers during a time when it was not only unusual but strange. She includes male siblings and male friends to orient us to the time and compares their trekking to that of these remarkable women. Since reading this book I've taken solo hikes in England (Yorkshire) and Scotland (Ballachulish/Glencoe; the Cairngorm Mountains).

This book is a fantastic gift for women who love to walk. Buy it for your friends who love to enjoy nature.

What a treasure of a book to find, and I don't know how I never found it sooner. Fantastic read, and a must for women walkers everywhere, and indeed, a must for all hikers in general. It would certainly help everyone understand the challenges of life in society as a woman, and particularly, life as a woman hiker. 100% recommend.

My mother walks and walks and she used to teach high school history and also a baby boomer. A kind of book she loves.

Andrews, K. (2020). Wanderers: A history of women walking. Reaktion Books.Kerri Andrews is Reader in Women’s Literature and Textual Editing at Edge Hill University. Kerri is one of the leaders of Women In The Hills, an Arts and Humanities Research Council-funded project aimed at exploring the factors enabling and inhibiting women’s access to upland landscapes. The project brings together people from all areas of walking, mountaineering, land access and management, to drive change in women’s access and experiences.The forward sets the tone: "As humans, walking defines us. . . We walk, and we talk. . . . The rhythms of our walking and of our thinking are one." Andrews explains: This is a book about ten women who, over the past three hundred years, have found walking essential to their sense of themselves, as people and as writers." Part of what drives her is that while the "history of walking has always been women's history," women's stories are omitted from the narratives on walking. Featured women included: Elizabeth Carter, Dorothy Wordsworth, Ellen Weeton, Sarah Stoddart Hazlitt, Harriet Martineau, Virginia Woolf, Nan Shepherd, Anais Nin, Cheryl Stayed, and Linda Cracknell. Andrews acknowledged that for women walking can create risk and vulnerability, still "Women have always walked. . . . Women writers too have, for hundreds of years, found walking to be essential to their creative processes, and to their sense of self." Walking was a way of escape, discovery, inner reflection, embodiment and experiencing the body in relation to nature. Andrews concluded: "For women walkers, their literary creativity is bound to walking just as tightly, and just as profoundly, as men's. But women move differently, see differently and write differently about their experiences." She identifies 15 additional authors in an appendix who walk and/or write about walking.Such a wonderful read, although I though the analysis provided in the Coda was weak and repetitive to what was already said within the women's profiles. I love the escape from dailiness and anonymity that walking provides, it's a chance to "walk away" from responsibility and any demand on my attention to just be. It's freeing and exhilarating to be in nature or even a cityscape, for me curiosity and exploration drive my steps forward - I love not knowing what's around the next corner. Reading these women's stories and how they reflected on walking within their writing felt comfortable, like I had found women I wanted to have coffee with...