Isabella Bird was one of the most famous and admired travel writers of the nineteenth century. The first woman to be elected to the Royal Geographical Society, she published eight volumes of travel writings which documented her lifetime of travels to every continent. Often ill as a child, at age eighteen she underwent partially successful spinal surgery to remove a tumor from her spine, yet continued to suffer from a series of ailments. Bird's doctor adviced travel as a cure, so in 1854 she was given one hundred pounds by her father and told she could travel until her money ran out. Leaving Liverpool in June, she travelled to Halifax, Nova Scotia to visit cousins. Becoming restless, Bird undertook wider travels, covering nearly 6,000 miles, visiting Maine, Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, Quebec, New York, and Massachusetts. She detailed her travels in letters to her sister which went on to become the basis for her first book, The Englishwoman in America, published in 1856. This first trip overseas, and the resultant book, set Bird up for a highly successful career as a traveller and writer.

Set in the islands in 1873, is the compelling account of the true life adventures that transformed a quiet English lady into the darling and dashing world traveler Isabella Bird, whose exploits held the world enthralled. She spent six months journeying through the islands, cantering through lush forests and grasslands on spirited ponies, drifting over the rolling blue seas on raffish schooners, and finally making her way to the fiery volcano of Mauna Loa. This is a book of singular charm, guaranteed to produce a thirst for adventure and travel. Here, all the beauties of Hawaii and the island way of life are seen through the eyes of one who is, for the first time, tasting life to the full.

First published in 2005. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

This little know gem by the doyenne of women travellers in the East describes a journey on horseback through the Himalayas and into Tibet, where she spent four months. Enchanted by the Tibetans who she found the 'pleastest of people', Bird's is a delightful account of a land of beauty and mystery, encircled by high mountains of vermillion and purple. Among the most striking passages are those that describe the religion of Tibet, which permeated the very atomosphere with a singular sense of strange of otherworldly. Bird visited the palaces, temples and monasteries and her description of the ceremonies, decorations, costumes and music capture a world that is now lost for all time. First published in 2001. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

First published in 2005. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

This is a narrative of travels in Japan undertaken in 1878 by someone who is probably the most famous female traveller and writer of the Victorian era. Travelling alone as a woman, she was the first to enter parts of Japan which had had no cultural contact whatsoever with a European, let alone a woman on her own. The letters which make up this work give a real picture of Japan and Japanese life at the time.