Virago is a Latin word for woman, and Virago Press is a U.K. publisher known for its titles written by female authors. Several years back, travel writer Mary Morris (author of River Queen) edited the beautiful Illustrated Virago Book of Women Travellers, which was subsequently released in paperback.
It’s a lovely collection of stories by and about some of the greatest female explorers: Gertrude Bell, Freya Stark, Edith Wharton, Leila Philip, Emily Carr and Mary Wollstonecraft (mother of Frankenstein author Mary Shelley.) The book claims to capture “300 years of wanderlust as women travel the world for pleasure and peril.” Some things never change, huh? No matter the decade, there have always been adventurous women out there doing their own thing. Nice to see this tribute to some of the bravest from years gone by.