Wildly Different: How five women reclaimed nature in a man’s world
Join us at Dunbar Library on Thursday, 6th March, at 7.30 pm, where we'll be joined by Sarah Lonsdale, who will be in conversation with Dan Richards about her new book, Wildly Different: How Five Women Reclaimed Nature in a Man’s World.
This event will include a Q&A, followed by a book signing.
Please book one ticket per person via this page. Copies of the book are available for collection from the bookshop/delivery in advance of the event.
Alternatively, copies can be collected from the signing table on the night.
About Wildly Different:
The globe-trotting tales of five women who fought for the right to enjoy the wild places of the earth.
For millennia the ‘wild’ was a place heroic men went on epic quests. Women were prevented from joining them, either through physical control or powerful myths about what would happen if they ventured beyond the city wall or village boundary.
So how did women claim their place in the remote and lovely parts of our planet?
In Wildly different, historian Sarah Lonsdale traces the lives of five women who fought for the right to work in, enjoy and help to save the earth’s wild places. We’ll meet Mina Hubbard, who outraged the exploration community when she stepped into a canoe in northern Labrador. Evelyn Cheesman, who became the first female keeper of insects at London Zoo.
Dorothy Pilley, who shocked polite society by donning men’s climbing breeches. Ethel Haythornthwaite, who helped make the Peak District Britain’s first National Park. And Wangari Maathai, who started a movement to plant millions of trees across sub-Saharan Africa.
Drawing on interviews with Sir David Attenborough, Wangari Maathai’s daughter and others, Lonsdale recounts the women’s adventures across five continents. Evocative and inspiring, this book shows how women can be ‘wildly different’.
Hardback, 196 pages, published 3rd March 2025.
Event details:
Venue: Dunbar Library, Bleachingfield Community Centre, Dunbarn, EH42 1DX
Event: 19:30 - 20:30
Doors: 19:15
About Sarah Lonsdale:
Sarah Lonsdale is Senior Lecturer in Journalism at City, University of London. She is the author of the books Rebel Women between the Wars (2020) and The Journalist in British Fiction and Film (2016) and writes for the Times Literary Supplement, History Today and the Sunday Times.
About Dan Richards:
Dan Richards is a Sunday Times-bestselling writer and broadcaster.
He is co-author of Holloway (with Robert Macfarlane and Stanley Donwood), and the author of The Beechwood Airship Interviews, Climbing Days, Outpost, and Overnight - set to be published by Canongate in March 2025.
Only After Dark, a BBC Radio 4 series about the nocturnal world, was broadcast to acclaim in 2022.
Dan has written for the Guardian, Economist, Esquire and Monocle.
He is based in Edinburgh.
@Dan_Zep
FAQs
- Will I be sent an e-ticket before the event?
Please note that we will have a guest list on the door on the night of the event, and you will not be sent an e-ticket for it - simply let us know your name/the name of the person who booked your ticket when you arrive, and we'll check you in!
A note on Covid precautions: if you feel unwell on the day, please err on the side of caution, and please take a lateral flow test before attending, if you can.