So, my friend Jen kindly informed a few of us in our BookCrossing group that the Oxfam Bookshop in Moseley had a load of Viragoes in the window. Upon rushing up there yesterday (after doing an urgent bit of work, naturally), I discovered three piles of Virago Travellers, those slightly elusive travel books they republished, usually written by doughty women about, at the very least, donning a thorn-proof skirt and hoicking themselves up onto a donkey, but often dressing as a man, to travel through all sorts of exciting places in the 1850s-1950s sort of time period.
Readers, I was restrained. OK, I already had some of them. But I did want to leave some for others to discover and I couldn’t “rescue” them all. They were all donated from / on behalf of (look, I didn’t push to know: too sad!) the same person, and when I asked the nice chap who’d got them out of the window display for me, he and the manager brought out the novels that had come in at the same time – unfortunately I had all of those except one. Then it would have been RUDE not to have had a look around the shop proper, right? and the travel section yielded some lovelies. The haul in full …
Virago Travellers:
Flora Tristan – “Peregrinations of a Pariah” – French writer visits Peru in 1833 to claim her inheritance – she’s a pariah because of her divorce.
Gertrude Bell – “The Desert and the Sown” – The famous traveller’s journey through Lebanon, Syria and Palestine, first published 1907.
Alexandra David-Neel – “My Journey to Lhasa” – In 1923, she was the first European woman to visit the city of Lhasa. She was adept in Tibetan ascetic practices to keep warm.
Flora Tristan – “The London Journey of Flora Tristan” – More of the French traveller, exploring London in 1826-39.
Edith Durham – “High Albania” – Seven years of travel in the Balkans in – yes, a “waterproof Burberry skirt”.
Virago Modern Classic:
Edith Wharton – “The Mother’s Recompense” – Not one I’d previously come across: a woman who abandoned her husband and daughter 20 years ago is summoned back to New York by that daughter.
Others:
Mike Carter – “All Together Now” – The son of the man who organised the People’s March for Jobs in 1981 does the same walk just pre-Brexit vote to look at what has happened to the working classes in the meantime.
Patrick Barkham – “Islander: A Journey Around our Archipelago” – I can’t resist a book about islands and this looks at all Britain’s isles, from a great and perceptive nature writer.
Vikram Seth – “From Heaven Lake” – More Lhasa! The novelist hitchhikes through Sinkiang and Tibet.
Have you read any of these? I couldn’t leave any of them behind, could I, now???
Apr 08, 2022 @ 08:13:36
Marvellous. I am Virago green with envy! They all sound fascinating. Happy reading.
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Apr 08, 2022 @ 08:40:03
I’ve not seen so many all together for absolutely ages, it was a real treat!
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Apr 08, 2022 @ 08:40:09
I love your description of Virago Travellers Liz 😀
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Apr 08, 2022 @ 08:40:51
I feel I’ve encapsulated the series efficiently there!
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Apr 08, 2022 @ 10:12:41
Lucky you! If I could recommend two Australians, one of whom probably wore sensible skirts, and both of whom rode camels, they are Robyn Davidson, Tracks (1970s) and Ernestine Hill (journalist and single mother, 1930s), The Great Australian Loneliness.
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Apr 08, 2022 @ 13:15:57
Ooh, the name Robyn Davidson rang a bell and I read her Desert Places from the library in October 1998 so how about that!
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Apr 08, 2022 @ 13:28:29
A warning on this one: I’m reading Tracks now and there’s a fair bit of distressing stuff about the treatment of animals (camels).
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Apr 08, 2022 @ 13:31:38
Ah, thank you!
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Apr 09, 2022 @ 12:35:32
That was one of the comments I made in my Goodreads review. I’d link to it, but as I read it in Dutch, the review is in Dutch, too. I really should translate it and add it to my blog. For the less squeamish, it is well worth reading, though I can’t comment on the style, being at the mercy of a translator. Did you know she had a long relationship with Salman Rushdie? They were introduced to each other by Bruce Chatwin.
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Apr 10, 2022 @ 16:14:00
I didn’t know that! What an introduction, too!
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Apr 08, 2022 @ 10:17:37
What a great selection of books! I don’t often read travel books but when I do I usually enjoy them and they all sound particularly fascinating!
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Apr 08, 2022 @ 13:16:39
I do love a travel book and all sorts, as shown by the pile, I suppose!
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Apr 08, 2022 @ 12:38:26
I’ve read From Heaven Lake but not the rest. I really ought to read my copy of A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains by Isabella Bird, and the biography I have of Gertrude Bell. Somehow I’d heard about that meditation to keep warm in Tibet — I wonder where it was mentioned??
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Apr 08, 2022 @ 13:17:53
The Isabella Bird is excellent. In fact I realise I’ve read that one and not the one about Japan I just went back and bought for a friend – better read it sharpish! And the meditation is definitely in Iris Murdoch’s The Sea, The Sea – Charles Arrowby’s Buddhist cousin James is said to have done it!
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Apr 08, 2022 @ 13:27:37
Ah, that could be it! But I’m sure I’ve also encountered it more recently as well, either in a travel book or a book on meditation. Possibly Tim Park’s Teach Us to Sit Still, actually.
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Apr 08, 2022 @ 13:51:02
Wow! lucky you, I hope they all turn into great reads!
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Apr 09, 2022 @ 11:13:38
I usually pick fairly wisely so I hope so too. And once the NetGalley reviewing calms down a bit, I’m planning to read one from the start, one from the middle then one from the end of the TBR so should get to at least some of them in good time!
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Apr 08, 2022 @ 15:27:37
All those travel books sound wonderful. What a great haul. Happy reading!
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Apr 09, 2022 @ 11:14:14
A favourite area of mine so really looking forward to reading them!
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Apr 09, 2022 @ 14:43:45
Hope you enjoy them all. They’re all appealing but Tibet and Peru most of all
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Apr 08, 2022 @ 20:00:05
Excellent haul. I have only ever read one Virago traveller. They look fascinating but it’s the Edith Wharton that I am particularly envious of.
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Apr 09, 2022 @ 11:14:44
Which one have you read, can you remember? I’m sure the Wharton will work its way to you in due course!
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Apr 09, 2022 @ 11:21:27
It was the Indian one by Emily Eden. Up Country I think.
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Apr 09, 2022 @ 11:37:59
Oh that is a good one – they had that in the shop but I’ve already read it, too!
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Apr 08, 2022 @ 23:59:54
No I haven’t but they all sound wonderful. The Wharton sounds familar, but I’m not sure.
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Apr 09, 2022 @ 00:00:51
PS A “waterproof Burberry skirt” would be useful in NSW right now!
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Apr 09, 2022 @ 11:15:10
Aha, yes, indeed. These historical women knew what they were doing!
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Apr 09, 2022 @ 06:48:15
Nice find!
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Apr 11, 2022 @ 08:49:59
Thank you! I’m reading one you’ll like at the moment …
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Apr 09, 2022 @ 08:12:24
Lovely finds, Liz! I haven’t come across that Wharton either. Looking forward to hearing all about it, as and when you get an opportunity to read it.
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Apr 09, 2022 @ 11:15:51
It does seem to be a less-known one, very interesting. I am hoping to get back to one from the start, one from the end (and one from the middle) soon, so hopefully will get to it fairly rapidly.
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Apr 09, 2022 @ 11:47:42
Brilliant haul Liz, and of course you couldn’t leave them behind! I have to the two Flora Tristans, and frankly if I had less on, I would love to do a project of reading all the Travellers – but I know I would fail quickly! They are lovely, though!
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Apr 10, 2022 @ 16:13:01
Well if you come to read the Floras in the next year, be sure to poke me and I can promote them up the pile and read them with you!
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Apr 09, 2022 @ 12:39:23
As far as I know, the only Traveller I have read is Beryl Markham’s West With the Night, which was fascinating.
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Apr 10, 2022 @ 16:13:36
That is known to be a good one. They’re such an interesting series.
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Apr 09, 2022 @ 16:27:58
Love these titles – and love the idea of a waterproof Burberry skirt
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Apr 10, 2022 @ 16:12:24
I think we could all do with one of those!
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Apr 10, 2022 @ 19:15:24
I’d especially like to read Gertrude and Edith–who doesn’t love a good hoick up onto a donkey or camel story?
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Apr 11, 2022 @ 08:50:18
I know, right?!
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Apr 11, 2022 @ 09:24:57
Great, what a pile! What I enjoy in second hand bookshops is that you never know what to find. There always seem to be a surprise that you did not think of, or thought were out of print. Great way to shop books.
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Apr 11, 2022 @ 09:28:28
Completely. I knew of most of the Viragoes but the Wharton is a surprise to most, it seems, and I hadn’t come across any of the more modern travel books before.
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Apr 15, 2022 @ 03:04:04
Great haul, enjoy!
One day, I plan on reading David-Neel’s book
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Apr 15, 2022 @ 09:50:11
Thank you – and that one does look fascinating.
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State of the TBR – May 2022 | Adventures in reading, running and working from home
May 01, 2022 @ 07:09:20
May 02, 2022 @ 17:52:07
Great haul, Liz. I didn’t realise that Virago did travel books, will have to keep an eye out for them. I do have one Virago compilation of women travellers though
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May 02, 2022 @ 18:23:11
I expect that’s the reissued hardback one I am hoping to read this month. Yes, they’re really good – you will like them I’m sure. Not hugely easy to find, though.
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Book review – Vikram Seth – “From Heaven Lake” | Adventures in reading, running and working from home
Nov 11, 2022 @ 08:01:09
Nov 11, 2022 @ 21:43:41
I missed this post when it came out – have just seen your link to it – but I just have to say that I read Flora Tristan’s Peregrinations of a pariah when it came out (by Virago, I mean!!) and it remains one of my most memorable Virago reads. I’d love to read the other by her.
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Nov 13, 2022 @ 18:19:35
Oh, that’s useful info, thank you! I am looking forward to these Virago Travellers and they’re creeping closer in the TBR!
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Nov 13, 2022 @ 22:34:42
I will keep an eye out on it.
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