I absolutely loved this beautifully written and very inspiring book about women who walk. Incorporating the writer's own very relatable experiences of life, motherhood and walking, along with fascinating details about incredible women walkers in history, this book has made me want to walk even more than I already do (it's literally the only form of exercise I truly enjoy). I am going to seek out her other books now, along with The Living Mountain.
Wonderful and highly recommended reading for all women.

I found this to be and interesting and original idea, that was beautifully executed. I enjoyed Windswept very much.

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for allowing me to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Annabel Abbs explores the women who pushed back against conformity, and who stepped into forbidden landscape because they felt drawn to know more, see more, experience more.

Windswept follows an exhilarating journey from Abbs' own isolated childhood to her following in the footsteps of Georgia O'Keeffe, Nan Shepherd, Gwen John and Daphne du Maurier. She sets out to learn how women are changed by their travels, and it makes for an inspiring, magical read about tough women living exactly the way they want to.

A thoughtful and in-depth meditation on walking, open spaces and connecting with nature. The author follows in the footsteps of women including Simone de Beauvoir and Georgia O'Keefe, and shares her experiences while reflecting on theirs in a nice blend of memoir and history. I found some sections more engaging than others, but it's a lovely book.

After a fall landed her in hospital with a cracked skull, Abbs couldn’t wait to roam again and vowed all her future holidays would be walking ones. What time she had for pleasure reading while raising children was devoted to travel books; looking at her stacks, she realized they were all by men. Her challenge to self was to find the women and recreate their journeys. I was drawn to this because I’d enjoyed Abbs’s novel about Frieda Lawrence and knew she was the subject of the first chapter here. During research for Frieda, Abbs omitted the Lawrences’ six-week honeymoon in the German mountains, so now she makes it a family cycling holiday, imitating Frieda’s experience by walking in a skirt and sunbathing nude. Other chapters follow Welsh painter Gwen John in Bordeaux, Nan Shepherd in Scotland, Georgia O’Keeffe in the American Southwest, and so on. Questions of risk and compulsion recur as Abbs asks how these women sought to achieve liberation. The interplay between biographical information and travel narrative is carefully controlled, but somehow this never quite came together for me in the way that, for instance, Sara Wheeler’s O My America! did. (3.5 stars)

Windswept is about a number of creative walkers and their walking. It is a feminist book and for me this detracted from the finished result, as the feminist interpretation was written by an author reflecting late twentieth century and twenty-first sensibilities, many of the women studied were productive in the early part of the twentieth century and what motivated them is I believe different to the modern women.

There was no discussion of the enjoyment of walking as opposed to those who have to walk for work. It is different. An important aspect of this is also that walking was possibly the only type of exercise women could participate in. The enjoyment of the exploration of new locations and exercising alone or with friends should not be under estimated. Surely in the last year or two many of us have seen how important being in green spaces is to us.

The statement that very few working women have written about their walking could also be levelled at the number of working men who wrote about their experiences too.

The book is well written and researched but I did not enjoy it.

An interesting and uplifting read. Makes me want to dust off my hiking boots . These ladies were intrepid and didn’t really care about being windswept

Part memoir, part travelogue and completely engaging, this book takes us into the lives of women who walked. But this isn’t just a few miles for a ramble. Some of these are days and days and are a true test of character and many are in a time when women walking alone were considered with suspicion. The choices are a bit idiosyncratic but I liked that and the premise of the book is that they connected with Ms Abbs so that she could then walk in the footsteps of the chosen women. I think if the women had been forced on her, she would never have succeeded given how difficult many of the walks prove to be.

Stuck at home during Covid and concerned about venturing out, this was an ideal book for me. The preparation and the poetic descriptions along with the brief biographies of the women, helped me to feel a commitment to the author and invested in her journey. Because it is a journey. She pushes herself - and her family - to try and understand what drove the women described.

I particularly enjoyed the story of Clara Vyvyan who walked the length of the Rhône trying to sort her life out and meditate in nature. She was joined on part of the walk by her friend Daphne du Maurier and their differences are amusing. I knew of Nan Shepherd and her love of Scotland but the descriptions and language used by Ms Abbs brought the Cairngorms into my cosy living room.

This would be a good gift for a relative who is feeling a bit penned in or a friend who loves literature but doesn’t like biography.

I was given a copy of the book by Netgalley.

Books about getting outside and exploring nature have been a great comfort to me in recent years and while there are more books being written by women now the accounts of female walkers/explorers have been harder to find.

I really liked this exploration of well known people, but not well known for their walking, and the journeys they made and the reasons why they walked.
I also enjoyed the exploration of why, even today, women who walk long distances, wild camp or just stroll alone are rare and often nervous.
I've come away with a long list of books/authors to try and a desire to see the places that inspired women of the past.
I am pleased that more women are walking and writing now as they are creating new narratives that aren't all focused around men (which all of Abbs walkers do seem to be) but this exploration of the near past was fascinating.

"Few women of the past who chose to walk long distances in unpeopled places were thought quite normal."
Annabel Abbs has done a remarkable job of bringing out into the light some exceptional women who walked in a time when walking alone was considered abnormal.
In addition, she gives them a voice... recovering from an accident and desperate to walk, whilst reading books about walking she realises that the majority, if not all books about walking, are written by men. Where are the women, she wonders?
Well, here they are. Gwen John, Simone de Beauvoir, Nan Shepherd, Georgia O'Keefe, Frieda Von RIchthofen. We learn of their lives and their stories, their walking and the adversities they faced, written in engaging and captivating prose.
Annabel walks some of their journeys and considers her own life and circumstances and what walking has meant to her.
I loved this book. Anyone who is interested in the loss of women's voices throughout history and who loves walking should read it. It will be a book I refer to again and again. It's an inspiring and important book. Every page is a delight.

With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc.

Really interesting book even if you’re not familiar with all the women written about (as I wasn’t). In a year that we haven’t been able to travel far beyond our own homes, it was a pleasure to spend time travelling vicariously through Windswept.

Whilst enjoyable and well written, I did find this book began to feel a little bit repetitive as it went along.
An interesting concept of taking women through history who have used walking for a variety of reasons and trying to emulate their routes to experience what they felt. I loved the historical insight and information and learnt a lot about some famous women who I have heard of, but never really understood much about their lives.
As someone who walks 5 miles a day as part of my job, I tried to incorporate some of the elements of 'benefit from nature' into my daily treks to see them as something other than 'just a job', not always with success - perhaps this is something the author could explore next working women walking - as it's definitely far less pleasurable than just doing it for health or creativity reasons!

Seven remarkable women travelling during a time when it was frowned upon, a woman's place is in the home. Interesting mini stories of each woman and how they got to the point in their lives when they needed to get away to find themselves, following a burning passion for the outside wilderness. Thoroughly researched by the author with snippets from the authors life and journey. Took me a while to read this book as I read in sections, very enjoyable. Thank you #NetGalley for the copy to review.

Windswept is such a brilliant read. Following in the footsteps of a group of pioneering women, who dared to live unconstrained by society's fetters, the author becomes freer, happier and healthier - by walking. Walking in green spaces. Hiking in mountains and desert areas. Overcoming fears and allowing her vulnerability to guide her, not consume her. The women who inspired her were pioneers, rebels, misfits and damaged souls. But they dared to stride out into the world and here they found joyous solitude and peace and creative inspiration.

A truly inspiring book that makes me want to pack a rucksack, don my walking boots and discover the beauty of wild walking.

Thank you @NetGalley for providing me with a free electronic copy of Annabel Abbs’s "Windswept: Walking the Paths of Trailblazing Women." I started reading it May and finished it mid-July.

Why did it take me so long? I savoured it.

This book is non-fiction, part memoir, part biography, part travel book. It mentions Georgia O’Keeffe exploring Texas and New Mexico, Nan Shepherd in Scotland, Gwen John following the French River Garonne, Daphne du Maurier following the River Rhône, Simone de Beauvoir in France, and more.

This book is for you if you like:
🚶‍♀️walking/travelling
🚶‍♀️strong, influential women
🚶‍♀️descriptions of nature: deserts, mountains, countryside...
🚶‍♀️non-fiction written like fiction; poetic, lyrical descriptions of landscapes
🚶‍♀️mental health and queer representation

Each section follows a different famous woman (writer or artist) and I don't just mean figuratively: the author actually retraced the steps of these women's hikes, most gruelling and risky. In the process she reflects on the fact that these women transgressed many rules and conventions by venturing in the wild, on their own, or just with one other female companion.

Some passages made me crave travelling. Luckily, during lockdown I had access to a communal garden and nearby parks, and my flat is full of plants. BUT walking on new paths... in countries with other languages... with gorgeous flora and fauna... I do miss dearly.

This book is not just shallow escapism, though. I learnt about relationships, what made these artists feel at peace, or what drove them to despair. And often, the damage caused by men in their lives. It is definitely a feminist book.

⭐⭐⭐⭐💫 (rounded up to 5)

My only gripe was that I sometimes had to Google certain places or artworks to have a visual representation of them, which took me out of the book a bit too much. But if you're an art enthusiast this probably won't be an issue!

An interesting read about many famous artisan Women who used Walking to help them through life .& for them to feel at one with the Land & Landscape that surrounded them. `` In order to speak with the earth ...........to partake of the sanctity of a landscape we must appreciate the journey and put the destination aside and we must Walk '' Shirley Toulson, `The Moors of the Southwest'-1983.
Annabel Abbs looks at the Psychology behind these Women's need to walk long recognised Trails and new ones , by walking many of them herself both alone & with her family during her research for this Book. It is not any easy read by any stretch of one's imagination , but it opens up a whole new world of respect for many of the Women she includes in her Book from the likes of Frieda Lawrence nee Von Richthofen 1879 -1956 to Emma Gatewood 1887 - 1973. #FB, #Instagram, #Goodreads, #NetGalley , # Amazon.co.uk , #<img src="https://www.netgalley.com/badge/c566f42be23a0e25d120e78a3454e2d427c4beee" width="80" height="80" alt="50 Book Reviews" title="50 Book Reviews"/>, #<img src="https://www.netgalley.com/badge/ef856e6ce35e6d2d729539aa1808a5fb4326a415" width="80" height="80" alt="Reviews Published" title="Reviews Published"/>,#<img src="https://www.netgalley.com/badge/aa60c7e77cc330186f26ea1f647542df8af8326a" width="80" height="80" alt="Professional Reader" title="Professional Reader"/>

A powerful and inspiring read. The author follows in the footsteps of women, giving a female perspective on paths usually trodden by men. It’s well researched, interesting and highlights both the challenges faced by women and the power of nature. Enjoyable and captivating.

Being a keen walker myself, I was very interested in the book's theme. I found the biographical parts of the books compelling and enriching, but not so much the autobiographical parts, I have to admit. I ended up finding them a bit repetitive and lacking depth compared to the stories of the women Annabel Abbs chooses to tell. It was still an enjoyable read overall, but it didn't blow my mind.

The title for this could not be more apt, that's exactly how you feel on coming to the end of this wonderful book, windswept. Windswept in the most alive and refreshed sense as though you've just come down a hill on a breezy summer day.

Abbs's research is clear to see throughout the anecdotes and routes described of the incredible women she's focused on here, and I love that she's retraced so many of their steps in her own way as well.

Would recommend this book to anyone. Just reading it has left me feeling lighter and freer. I'm a lifelong walker and nature lover anyway, but the sense of empowerment that's evoked through the lives retold here will entrance even the most hermit-y of hermits.

What an amazing read ! Spending time with authors, philosophers, mountaineers, poets and artists through the medium of walking was such a privilege. These women were conjured by Annabel Abbs into the here and now, with so much to relate to despite the passage of time . I loved this book.
I will definitely be recommending this to friends and will buy a hard copy too