In the past, I haven't reviewed books that I haven't read. But, I have changed my mind. Firstly, I think that the fact that I couldn't finish a book is a valid criticism, and this is where we give feedback to the publisher. Secondly, I need to get my score up. I will not post this anywhere else but here. My rating will be based on what other people would think about this work.

I read about 30% of this work. It is an interesting exploration of the life of a complex woman. However, I found that I couldn't get motivated to complete the book. Perhaps, it was me, but I found the book dragged. However, I think many would be interested in this book. I applaud its aim to highlight the life of this unjustly forgotten, important, figure.

Reading about adventurers or explorers is not really in my historical wheelhouse, so I was unfamiliar with Isabella Bird prior to reading this book. If she is more noteworthy in the UK, I can see why. In a time when women were largely destined to stay at home and take care of the house while popping children out – Bird when out and traveled the globe, usually by herself, in times when such things were unheard of. Given 100 Pounds at the age of 23, she set out on an adventure that defined her life and never looked back. Bird was able to write about her trips, and eventually sustain her subsequent travels using the money from previous books. She was a prolific writer at the time, and Jacki Hill-Murphy has taken great care to summarize some of her works as well as talk about the sociopolitical climate around her at the time, and even her own personal life.

"Isabella Bird travelled to the wildest places on earth, but at home in Britain she lay in bed, hardly able to write: ‘an invalid at home and a Samson abroad’. In Japan she rode on a ‘yezo savage’ through foaming floods along unbeaten tracks, and was followed in the city by a crowd of a thousand, whose clogs clattered ‘like a hailstorm’ as they vied for a glimpse of the foreigner. She documented America before and after the Civil War and was deported from Korea with only the tweed suit she stood up in during a Japanese invasion. In China she was attacked with rocks and sticks and called a foreign dog, but she never gave up and went home. ‘The prospect of the unknown has its charms.’

Transformed by distant lands, she crossed raging floods, rode elephants, cows and yak, clung to her horse’s neck as it clambered down cliff paths, slept on simple mats on the bare ground, unable to change out of wet clothes or get out of the searing heat. Her travels and the books she wrote about them show courage and tenacity, fuelled by a restless spirit and a love of nature. She is as unique now as she was then."

Perhaps one of the more interesting travel locations of hers, for me at least, was reading about her trip through the antebellum United States in the 1850s. Usually traveling by wagon or train, she mainly stayed in the northern part of the US, but got to hear about certain issues regarding slavery and things that would eventually boil over into The Civil War. Her views are somewhat bigoted for modern ears, but sadly typical for the time, as she felt slavery was good, and that slaves generally loved their predicament. Had she traveled to the deep south, perhaps she would have had a different viewpoint? She would later return to America, but this time after the war and travelling the Rocky Mountains. I honestly might try to read The Englishwoman in America, as that early Nineteenth Century time period is slowly becoming one of my favorite times to explore.

This book gave me at least one idea for a book to read, so I think it’s a success. While her descriptions of other locations such as Korea and Japan during the late Victorian period are interesting, that really isn’t where my interest largely lies, so I won’t seek any of that out further, this book does a fine enough job of summarizing it for me. I feel bird was a remarkable woman; considering her medical issues she embarked on the sort of trip that many dream of. Hell, When my back hurts I sometimes barely travel outside, much less a multiple month long trip across the ocean! This was a solid book, and I assume I enjoyed it more not knowing anything about Bird, but nonetheless I’m glad to have read it.

This was a good introduction to Isabella Bird's life, I say introduction as it felt like an overview rather than being in-depth. It felt a bit chaotic in its structure, you are sort of thrown into this with no real clue to what the author wanted to say. It’s a nice start, but just felt it needed a bit more

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

The Life and Travels of Isabella Bird: The Fearless Victorian Adventurer
By Jacki Hill-Murphy
Pen and Sword History, 28 February 2021

From the publisher:

Isabella Bird traveled to the wildest places on earth, but at home in Britain she lay in bed, hardly able to write: 'an invalid at home and a Samson abroad.'

In Japan she rode on a 'yezo savage' through foaming floods along unbeaten tracks, and was followed in the city by a crowd of a thousand, whose clogs clattered 'like a hailstorm' as they vied for a glimpse of the foreigner. She documented America before and after the Civil War and was deported from Korea with only the tweed suit she stood up in during a Japanese invasion. In China she was attacked with rocks and sticks and called a foreign dog, but she never gave up and went home. 'The prospect of the unknown has its charms.'

Transformed by distant lands, she crossed raging floods, rode elephants, cows and yak, clung to her horse's neck as it clambered down cliff paths, slept on simple mats on the bare ground, unable to change out of wet clothes or get out of the searing heat.

Her travels and the books she wrote about them show courage and tenacity, fueled by a restless spirit and a love of nature. She is as unique now as she was then.

My thoughts:

Isabella Bird was indeed fearless. And what a fascinating life she led! She was curious, adventurous, and could not stay long in one place. If she wasn’t traveling, she was planning her next adventure. Even while at home in she was constantly relocating from one house to another. When she could no longer travel due to her health, she was nonetheless planning her next trip.

Bird wrote about her travels and published her first book in 1856. The proceeds from her books enabled her to spend her entire life traveling. She traveled without a chaperone, quite daring for her time, but always had letters of introduction to people who could help her and she always hired guides. Bird didn’t seem to mind, for the most part, discomfort while traveling. She was willing to sleep anywhere and put up with innumerable inconveniences, dangers, and even fleas in order to reach her destinations.

The Life and Travels of Isabella Bird by Jacki Hill-Murphy is a well-written, absolutely captivating look into the life of a trailblazing woman, as well as a picture of life over a hundred years ago in numerous countries. Bird’s description of people and places takes the reader along with her, only from a much more comfortable vantage point. According to the author, Bird’s letters and books left “elaborate details of traditions, ceremonies, life-styles and culinary habits” of peoples and cultures from over 150 years ago. Many of them are included in this book, which I decidedly recommend.

Thanks to NetGalley and Pen and Sword Books for the ARC.

The Life and Travels of Isabella Bird by Jacki Hill-Murphy

I started reading Isabella Bird’s travel writing as an escape from grey, rainy, slightly-soul-crushing life in London. Bird was one of the great explorers of the late 19th-century. And she was a woman. And she made some of her greatest trips in her 60s, while suffering from chronic pain. And her writing and photographs of Japan, Korea and China are still referenced by anthropologists today. And she was a fantastic storyteller who could transport the reader to a trapper’s cabin in the Rocky Mountains or a luscious, deadly tropical forest in just a few words.

Basically, she was a badass.

It’s clear that Jacki Hill-Murphy shares my fascination with Bird. The Life and Travels takes a linear path through Bird’s life. From her early travels as an unmarried woman in North America to her adventures in Japan, Malaysia and Pakistan, through to Korea and China in her early-60s.

Hill-Murphy mainly focuses on giving historical context to Bird’s writing, especially her homelife and relationships with her sister and husband. As she was quite a private person, most of these details were missing from Bird’s writing. While this extra context is interesting (and helps ground the reader), there’s a sad lack of observations from Bird’s contemporaries. Most of Bird’s early writing was done in letters to her sister (later tidied up and turned into bestselling books), however none of her sister’s return letters seems to have survived. There’s also next to nothing from Bird’s official biographer, which is a shame as Bird was clearly a very complex woman and she continued to obsessively travel, despite near-debilitating pain.

Bird was a prolific writer, and, unfortunately, Hill-Murphy seems to have struggled with the sheer volume of source material available to her. Inconsistent use of quotations throughout the book means that it’s not always clear when Bird is “speaking” and when it’s actually Hill-Murphy’s narration. There are also times when Hill-Murphy takes her quest to give the reader context too far. The inclusion of a rather long TripAdvisor review about a tricky pass does make it clear that Bird was attempting journeys in the 19th century that remain hazardous in the 21st century. But I can’t say it added much to the book, or my experience as a reader.

Overall, The Life and Travels of Isabella Bird is an engaging book about a fascinating writer, marred by a limited format and errors that I’d expect the editor to have caught. There’s clearly a lot more ground to cover when it comes to Isabella Bird. For now I’m hopeful that this book will introduce her writing to a new audience of readers and maybe inspire some of them to write their own books about her.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Pen & Sword History for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

At the tender age of twenty-three, a petite woman named Isabella Bird embarked on a trip from Liverpool, England to Halifax, Nova Scotia. The purpose of this trip was to improve her health, according to both her father and her physician, but this journey turned out to be a defining moment in her life as Isabella would never again be able to stay in one place for very long before she felt the urge to travel again, no matter what dangers she faced from nature or humankind. She was, in the author’s words, a fearless woman.

Author Jacki Hill-Murphy recounts the life and travels of Isabella Bird, the pioneer who defied societal expectations by traveling to remote places on earth and documenting her experiences for publication during the second half of the nineteenth century into the early twentieth century. Based on published travel narratives and personal correspondence with her sister, Henrietta, and close friends, we get a sense of Bird’s awe of nature and different cultures during her expeditions. During her travels around the world, Bird has several close calls with death, falls in love with an Irishman living in the Rockies, and is labeled a devil and attacked by locals on more than one occasion. But nothing will stop her from continuing her expeditions well into her late years. The excerpts from Bird’s letters and her published travel narratives contain imagery that give the story authenticity, while Hill-Murphy’s historical narrative engages readers from the start. One can clearly tell how much the author admires Isabella Bird's courage as an explorer and a writer during a time when it was quite difficult for women to do one or the other.

Warning: Readers in North America should note that there is use of terms considered racist in our part of the world, and it is disarming to see these terms used so casually.

Isabella Bird traveled to the wildest places on earth, including North America, Asia, Korea, and Australia. This book shares information about her travels at the turn of the 20th century. I enjoyed hearing her perspectives and seeing these areas through her eyes.
I appreciated reading about Isabella's resilient and courageous spirit as she perseveres in the midst of severe weather, hostile natives, uncooperative horses, and limited comforts. She truly was a woman who was most alive in nature. In fact, she felt restless and ill when she wasn't on the move.
In places, I felt like the author was merely rehashing what other writers shared about Isabella's travels. But overall, I enjoyed reading this book. The pictures at the end are helpful for context, too.

This was a good overview of Isabella Bird's life, but I felt very thrown into the narrative. I needed more of an introduction about why I should care about her or the author of the book. I was suddenly following one woman who was following another woman and I wasn't even sure why.

I think I was also looking for more than a summary of each of Bird's books. I wanted more context of the times, which was mentioned, but it didn't feel very rich.

All in all, a good stepping off point, but not as deep as I was hoping.

I wasnt sure what I was getting into going into this book, but I was pleasantly surprised. It was very well written and I liked it a lot.

I received a free e-ARC from the author/publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I've always been fascinated by Isabella Bird. I even used quotations from Unbeaten Tracks in Japan in my honours thesis about the Ainu. So when I saw this book on NetGalley I jumped at the chance to read it.

I have mixed feelings about The Life and Travels of Isabella Bird. I found the earlier chapters, in which we get some background about Isabella's life and family, very interesting, I started to feel a bit disappointed as I continued to read because this is essentially just a streamlined summary of Isabella's published works. I'm not sure 'summary' is even the right word, because we get descriptions of the routes she traveled, and where she stayed, and whom she met, and what was said; which, as far as I can tell, were pulled directly from Isabella's travel memoirs.
There were some instances where the author had travelled to the same places as Isabella, and some reflections on the similarities and differences. However, there were other times when the author tried to make this link between her own travels in a land rover in Africa, for example, and Isabella's travels on the other side of the planet, which seemed kind of disjointed to me. I think, had the author set out to explore this globetrotting connection between the two, instead of focusing primarily on Isabella's travels, the book would have been more successful. Instead of a line or two about her own adventures, Hill-Murphy could have made this a dual narrative comparing and contrasting her experiences with Isabella's.
This isn't to say I didn't enjoy The Life and Travels of Isabella Bird at all, but I definitely think there could have been improvements.

The Life and Travels of Isabella Bird by Jacki Hill-Murphy is an quick glimpse into the life of an amazing woman. Isabella Bird, stood at 4' 11", had debilitating pain, but traveled the world by herself in the 1800s. She didn't just travel, she explored and wrote about her life. This book is a bit like the Cliffs Notes version of her life. However, the author has done extensive research not only of Bird's own works but what others have also written about her. The author has even traveled some of the same routes Bird did to bring this book to life. This is a good book to start with in learning about this amazing woman. Thank you #NetGalley for allowing me the opportunity to give my voluntary and honest opinion of #TheLifeandTravelsofIsabellaBird.

Thank you to NetGalley and Pen & Sword for the opportunity to read a copy of The Life and Travels of Isabella Bird so that I may provide an honest review.

I first became familiar with Isabella Bird when I read her "Unbeaten Tracks" while living in Japan as an expat. Although I lamented the fact that the writing of her travels within the country predated her photography, I was captivated by the way she was able to paint a picture through her precise descriptions of her adventures and discoveries. I had no idea of how far, wide and fearlessly Bird had traveled and was thrilled to learn more about her in the pages of this book. Author Jacki Hill-Murphy gives readers this well-researched biography - that reads like a thriller - of Bird told through mostly through her correspondence and writings. The explorer's utter restlessness and thirst for adventure is palpable through the book and the descriptions of Bird's harrowing travels left me astonished and eager to do further research on her as well as read her other writings. I can see this book appealing to a wide range of curious readers and am eagerly awaiting its publication date so that I may recommend it and secure a copy for myself.