GLOWING STILL: A Woman's Life on The Road

The quote on the back of this book is by Martha Gellhorn: 'I do not want to be good...I wish to be hell on wheels, or dead.' Sara Wheeler's prize-winning books include Terra Incognita: Travels in Antarctica and The Magnetic North: Travels in the Arctic, and she is Britain's foremost travel writer. Here is the story of her travelling life, what is 'important, revealing or funny', in a notoriously testosterone-laden field. Growing up among blue-collar Conservatives in Bristol where 'we didn't know anyone who wasn't like us', Sara knew she needed to get away. In her 20s she began a dramatic escape, pole to pole via Poland. Her book recalls happy days on India's Puri Express; an Antarctic lavatory through which a seal popped up, with hot fishy breath!; and the louche life of a Parisian shopgirl. Corralling reindeer with the Sámi in Arctic Sweden, and towing her baby on a sledge, a helpful herdsman advised her to put foil down her bra to facilitate nursing. Launching at Nubility, Wheeler voyages via small children to the welcoming port of Invisibility. She leaves Immobility for the next volume. But advancing years usher in unheralded freedoms, and journey's end finds Wheeler at peace among Zanzibar dhows, contemplating our connection with other lives - the irreplaceable value that travel brings - and paying homage to her heroines. 'Surely' wrote Freya Stark, 'Of all the wonders of the world, the horizon is the greatest.' Fairly large print, photos, we travel with our wonderful companion to Antarctica, Greece, India, Africa, North America, Latin America, China, Russia and Zanzibar. 354pp.