Wildly Different - by Sarah Lonsdale

About the Book

For millennia the 'wild' was a place heroic men went on epic quests. This book traces the lives of five women who fought against prejudice for their right to work in, enjoy and help save the earth's wild places.

Book Synopsis

For millennia the 'wild' was a place heroic men went on epic quests. This book traces the lives of five women who fought against prejudice for their right to work in, enjoy and help save the earth's wild places.

Review Quotes

One of the Financial Times' best summer books of 2025

'Wildly different is an urgent, timely and original study of five pioneering women who fought for the right to explore and protect the wild. Sarah Lonsdale writes from the heart, and nothing has brought home to me with more force the relationship between gender and the natural world.'
Frances Wilson, author of The Ballad of Dorothy Wordsworth

'Sarah Lonsdale powerfully and vividly reconstructs the lives of these brave, norm-defying women who, like too many, have been left out of our stories of adventure and the wild. A thrilling and ultimately triumphant read.'
Kate Zernike, author of The Exceptions

'Drawing from their notes, maps, correspondence and memoirs, Sarah Lonsdale tells the stories of five courageous, wildly different women - and the "oneness" they all experienced after overcoming physical and societal boundaries, to reach some of the most remote, wild and beautiful places on our planet. That these spaces are still contested for women is a travesty, but this inspirational book will embolden new generations of women to reclaim their places in the wild. Heartfelt, uplifting and utterly compelling, I could not put this book down.'
Brigit Strawbridge Howard, author of Dancing with Bees

'It's a deeply felt, splendidly told, long overdue celebration of five wild, witty and wise voices who make a compelling case, now as then, for conservation, compassion and community.'
Dan Richards, author of Climbing Days

'This fascinating new biography showcases the ways women have fought to assert themselves in the wild.'
Henry Bird, The Times' environment newsletter

'The idea that such exploits are the preserve of men, not women, is brilliantly dispatched'
Pilita Clark, Financial Times

'The women themselves are certainly interesting and largely unknown, except for Nobel Peace Prize-winner Maathai, making this a worthy choice for environmental and women's history collections.'
Colleen Mondor, Booklist

'Spellbinding'
Christopher Wilson, Daily Express

'Well worth reading.'
Carola Huttmann, Bookmunch

About the Author

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.