A Curious Life For A Lady: The Story of Isabella Bird – Pat Barr

A curious life indeed, particularly for an outwardly genteel Victorian lady, a clergyman’s daughter and, in later life, a respectable Scottish doctor’s wife and widow.

But an enviable one.

Isabella Bird‘s travels took her to Hawaii, America and Japan, Korea and China, Malaysia and Vietnam, Kashmir and Ladakh, Persia and Kurdistan, Turkey and Morocco. She climbs Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa, has a romantic encounter with “Rocky Mountain Jim” and is the first woman Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. Aged 60, she travels on horseback through Persia and, aged 72, was planning another trip to China when she died in 1904.

Suitably inspring reading during our ten days at Corrie Craggie, and a suitable setting given Isabella’s accounts originated as letters to her beloved sister Henrietta who lived for many years on the Isle of Mull.

Amazon.co.uk page: A Curious Life For A Lady: The Story of Isabella Bird – Pat Barr