writing women back into the countryside: a book

[makespaceforgirls]

I mentioned on the play equipment thread that I was writing a book about women and the countryside and didn't want to derail that conversation, so for anyone who is interested, here's a bit about it.

The book is based around me walking two of the oldest roads in England, the Ridgeway, which runs along the chalk of Oxfordshire, Wiltshire and Dorset and the Harrow Way, which runs from Andover to Devon via Stonehenge. It's in part about me getting my courage back to walk alone, and about why women feel threatened in the countryside, but it's also about why women in general are meant to be at home, or in the garden, about how the countryside is not a 'natural' thing, and how so many men walk all over the countryside for books and women don't.

On a more lateral tack, it also looks at why archaeology is done by men and through men's eyes, how almost every walk I take is done to the accompaniment of gunshot because the army are everywhere around me (see also the countryside is not natural), why John Betjeman was a terrible husband and how he would have been torn to shreds on MN and much else besides.

There are some very short excerpts from it on this website:

tenderfoot.co.uk/s-walker-text/

It's just gone off to be read by someone else. I have no idea whether it is brilliant or an insane cheese dream that only I would read. We will see;

If anyone wants to read a chapter or two, I'd be happy to oblige.

Also has anyone read Maggie O'Farrell's I am, I am, I am in the topic of walking alone and trusting your instincts?

Good to read this thread and realise there are other women out there who walk and cycle alone. Ive only had one bad experience and managed to get myself out of it but Im still a bit wary of going to quiet places where I`m not familiar with the route. This woman was a doughty campaigner who walked alone and wrote books. www.marionshoard.co.uk/Books/A-Right-To-Roam.php

And on the subject of men taking the walking centre stage - the famous Wainwright of the Lake District guides, apparently made his wife walk some way behind him so that he wouldnt be distracted.

This thread makes me want to go for a walk somewhere beautiful

I missed this thread before too - thanks for bumping it, Gerla.

I'm (COVID aside) a very enthusiastic long time solo traveller, and I also compulsively hike, trek, and climb rocks (and sometimes whole mountains). I love walking/exploring alone - countryside and city and everything in between - and am normally fine doing it although careful to be aware of any dangers for the specific location. But I do find I have a "block" about camping/sleeping alone overnight in an isolated area, and that limits me from getting to the most remote places solo. There's something about being asleep or unconscious alone and oblivious to the world that makes me feel much more vulnerable than I do "just" being a women alone and awake and engaged.

I also think we can't generalise about how women feel walking (or travelling) alone. I was pretty fearless until a few years ago (it'll be six this May) when I was a victim of a violent crime and suddenly found it pretty much impossible to walk down my own street without panicking, even though I'd previously travelled around the world alone.. Very luckily for me, one of the police officers on my case recognised the symptoms of trauma and referred me to get a diagnosis (of PTSD, as it turned out) and treatment. Through group therapy and through being involved in a community of people knowledgeable about and suffering and recovering from PTSD, I learned that the ways in which so many women are routinely subject to trauma, and the ways in which we recover, are a dynamic. I've spent so much of my life yelling go girl, you can do whatever you want, don't be afraid - and a big part of me still wants to say that, and believe that. But it's not that simple - not just for some women, but for distressingly many women.

Anyway: thanks to everyone for the book recommendations. I've loved these books recently, too: Jini Reddy: Wanderland, Kerri Andrews: Wanderers: A History of Women Walking, and the anthology Waymaking: An Anthology of Women's Adventure Writing, Poetry and Art edited by Helen Mort, Claire Carter, Heather Dawe, and Camilla Barnard. Would love to read your work too, makespaceforgirls; will PM you.

Loved that piece linked upthread on the lone enraptured male. A great piece of writing.

I do adventure a bit alone. I am happy to go for day hikes alone or with dogs, long cycles and runs alone and generally feel happy and confident to do so. The worst thing that has ever happened was falling in a river in the bush in New Zealand, and I hurt myself and it took a long time to limp my way back to civilisation.

Overnight I do have a block about. I’ve slept in my car a few times while adventuring, but I’ve felt out of my comfort zone. I am no Rosie Swale Pope (look up her books for the ultimate in intrepid women!).

Your book sounds fab, OP, please do keep us up to date with its progress.

Fascinating thread - placemarking to read at my leisure. I've read a couple of McFarlane books and enjoyed them. To be perfectly honest, the absence of his wife and children in the books wouldn't have occurred to me really. And I have to admit, as someone who has spent plenty of time doing school runs and household drudgery, that's the last thing I'd want to read about! But I do get the point about the 'line enraptured male' view.

• lone, not line!

@Sophoclesthefox - Rosie Swale was a toughie for sure. Robyn Davidson (see her book "Tracks") was another.

Gerla - I've literally just finished reading it and that's exactly what sprang to my mind. Unfortunately.

Going off at a slight tangent here, but the other day I drove for about forty minutes in my rural-ish area on a weekday mid morning. I was struck by the numbers of male cyclists, alone or in pairs, I saw. Not one woman. This was during the working week and most of the men looked to me to be of working age (30s - 60s).

I was mainly interested in the idea of men having so much more leisure time than women. It's hard to imagine women being able to take a chunk out of their working day - whether they are in paid employment or not, to indulge a hobby. I know personally when I'm working there's little chance of a break because I need to make sure I can finish on the dot for the school run, for example (actually my DP is in a similar position but we have a pretty egalitarian approach to work and family).

Reading this thread has made me think about the other possible issues at play of women's confidence to be out in the countryside.