Women & Adventure
Life is either a daring adventure or nothing - Helen Keller
Adventure is an exciting experience that is bold and may involve considerable risk. An adventure may involve activities involving unknown risks and outcomes. It could be potentially dangerous or hazardous. Adventurous activities create negative or positive psychological arousal such as fear, anxiety, and enjoyment.
An adventure should be remarkable, involve risk and bring us some form of personal growth. Modern adventures could be travelling, mountain climbing, exploring, river rafting, or any form of extreme sport.
History Of Women & Adventure
The United Kingdom has a fair share of adventurous women throughout its history. Many incredible and inspiring females have defied convention and undertaken unbelievable journeys.
Lady Hester Stanhope
We start with the remarkable adventurous woman Lady Hester Stanhope (1776-1839), who explored the Arab world while playing society hostess for her uncle. She became the first European woman to cross the Syrian desert. The traveller, adventurer and socialite, Lady Stanhope even dressed as a man and refused to wear a veil. Gibraltar, Athens, Egypt, Israel Malta, and Syria are some of the places she visited. She is the first person to carry out modern excavation in the holy land.
Amy Johnson
Amy Johnson was the first woman to fly solo from London to Australia. She died at the young age of 38 when her aircraft crashed near Herne Bay. She was among the pioneering female pilots and she is today recognised in many ways. There is a bronze statue at Herne Bay to honour her, a blue plaque at Vernon Court, An Amy Johnson Avenue in Darwin, Australia, Johnson road in Heston Aerodrome in West London, among numerous other Honours and tributes.
Helen Patricia Sharman
How about we take an adventure out of this world. Helen Patricia Sharman is the first Briton in space and the first woman to visit the Mir in 1991. She has received more than 10 honorary degrees from different universities for her feat.
Laura Bingham
Money should not deny anyone an adventure. Ask Laura Bingham. Nicknamed ‘the adventurer,’ miss Bingham travelled across South America on her bike while relying only on human kindness and generosity. She cycled over 7,000 km from the Pacific coast of Ecuador, through Bolivia, Peru, Paraguay up to Buenos Aires, Argentina in 2016. Bingham raised awareness for Operation South America, a UK based charity through her adventure.
Dee Caffari
Dee Caffari single-handedly sailed around the world “the wrong way” in 2016. She did this non-stop westward against the prevailing currents and winds. Three years later, Caffari sailed around the world again to becoming the first woman to do so solo, non-stop, in both directions.
Short Stories
Short stories are enjoyable and can help the reader to identify different writing styles. It improves imagination scope and vocabulary. It additionally enhances your writing skills.
Are You A Spectacular
Storyteller?
Storyteller?
Now short storytelling is an art and even writing them takes a bit of practice to get to the core message and central focus, working within a tight framework. So, I thought I would invite you to share in my next big endeavour. This will take place in two parts so if you are a writer but enjoy curling up by the fire with a hot cupper and enjoy a nice story, I would love to invite you to become a Happy London Story Maker.
Well, what might this be I hear you say...Well, let me explain some more. We want to create a short story competition and make a beautiful creative hardback book of short stories with contemporary photographs. And to make sure every entry has been fairy read and rated, we need volunteer readers to pre-select and shortlist several stories for the judges to choose the finalists.
We would like to invite you to become a Happy London Story Maker (unless you want to wait a while and submit an entry into the competition). So here is the plan and what to do;
Each story will be up to 800 to 1000 words long. Good clean fiction. All you need to do to get involved is sign up and register to become a HappyLdn Story Maker.
Send an email to Clare marked ''I would like to become a HappyLDN Story Maker
to happylondon@gmx.co.uk
Looking forward to sharing the pleasures of reading with you!!
Female Adventure Authors
Beryl Markham
Beryl Markham is not only a renowned female adventurer but also a well known for her memoir, West with the Night. Beryl was the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic non-stop from east to west. West with the Night recounts her adventures growing up in Africa in the 1900s, her successful career as a racehorse trainer, and her non-stop solo journey from England to North America. The National Geographic Adventure included her book in the top ten in the list of 100 best adventure books.
Isabella Lucy Bird
Isabella Lucy Bird’s life was an adventure in itself. She was an explorer, an author, photographer, founded the John Bishop Memorial hospital in Srinagar and was elected Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. She wrote numerous works, many dealing with travelling and adventure. Six Months in the Sandwich Islands, amongst the Palm Groves, Coral Reefs and Volcanoes (1874) is one of her popular works. The book covers her adventure in Hawaii, where she stayed for six months among the locals learning their culture, horsemanship, landscape, and vegetation.
Jan Morris
She is a master of detailed and haunting descriptions. Jan Morris focuses more on people and places in her travel writing. Her collections are masterpieces in adventure writing. ‘The world: Life and Travel 1950 – 2000’ is a collection of her best essays. The collection tells the many tales Jan found along her way through travel vignettes: among them, exciting essays on Manhattan, Kashmir, Kyoto, Jerusalem, the Everest climbing, and Moscow.
Wide Illumination
by author
Tom Rubens
''Set in the mid-1960s, this second novel in the trilogy shows Richard
Lane continuing his studies in English Literature at university.
These studies become a springboard for a frank sharing of
ideas with a circle of other male students. Their conversations are partly to do with moral attitudes and with differences in social position.''
A University Student's Encounter
During his first summer vacation,
he visits Germany and meets a
female German student named
Helga, with whom he develops an
intimate understanding, enriched
by sexual pleasure.
Available on Kindle
Female Authors & Their Stories
Nellie Bly
At her time, Nellie Bly was the most popular travel writer. Nellie Bly was best known for her trip around the world in 72 days. She launched a new kind of investigative journalism when working undercover at Women’s Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell’s Island. Her most popular work is her book Around the World in Eighty Days, first published in 1890.
On her path to become one of the most celebrated journalists, author, and adventurer, she was forced to drop out of boarding school after her father died. After a local newspaper in Pittsburgh published a column claiming girls are principally for keeping house and giving birth, she wrote a response. The newspaper editor was impressed and offered her an opportunity to write for the newspaper. That is how her illustrious career started.
Dervla Murphy
Full Tilt: Ireland to India with a Bicycle is written by Irish touring cyclist and adventure travel books writer Dervla Murphy. The trip took her through Europe, Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan, and India. Born in Lismore, County Waterford, Dervla recounts her experience in travelling and becoming an author. She became enthusiastic about cycling at the tender age of ten after receiving a second-hand bicycle from her parents. She resolved to cycle to India one day.
Through her journey from Ireland to India later in life, she began writing a journal as an alternative to mailing letters. She used her gun once in Iran to scare off a group of thieves who could have stolen her belongings, including her writing. Her journal covering this journey was published as a book Full Tilt: Ireland to India with a Bicycle in 1965. She would write a journal for her travels and stays in places like Tibet, Punjab, and Ethiopia which would later be published as books. After giving birth to her daughter in 1968, she took a break from travelling and writing by becoming a book reviewer. She resumed travel writing five years later.
Calling Short Story Lovers!
We love to provide opportunities for talented podcasters with authentic content. We have an opportunity for podcasters with great content. All you have to do is read three of our short stories and submit your recording to our contact page through the link below:
We hope you enjoyed the adventure, please do let us know which story you have enjoyed the most.
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