Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Preview
  • Windswept

  • why women walk
  • By: Annabel Abbs
  • Narrated by: Fenella Fudge
  • Length: 11 hrs and 17 mins
  • 4.2 out of 5 stars (13 ratings)

£0.00 for first 30 days

Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Windswept

By: Annabel Abbs
Narrated by: Fenella Fudge
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Summary

The story of extraordinary women who lost their way - their sense of self, their identity, their freedom - and found it again through walking in the wild. A feminist exploration of the power of walking in nature, following in the footsteps of Gwen John, Georgia O'Keeffe, Frieda Lawrence, Clara Vyvyan, Simone de Beauvoir, Daphne Du Maurier and Nan Shepherd.

For centuries, the wilds have been male territory, while women sat safely confined at home. But not all women did as they were told, despite the dangers; history is littered with women for whom rural walking became inspiration, consolation and liberation.

In this powerful and deeply inspiring book, Annabel Abbs uncovers women who refused to conform, who recognised a biological, emotional and artistic need for wilderness, water and desert - and who took the courageous step of walking unpeopled and often forbidding landscapes.

Part wild-walk, part memoir, Windswept follows an exhilarating journey from Abbs' isolated car-less childhood to her walking the remote paths trodden by extraordinary women including Georgia O'Keeffe in the empty plains of Texas and New Mexico, Nan Shepherd in the mountains of Scotland, Gwen John following the Garonne, Simone de Beauvoir in the mountains and forests of France and Daphne du Maurier following the River Rhone.

A single question pulses through their walks: how does a woman change once she becomes windswept?

©2021 Annabel Abbs (P)2021 Hodder & Stoughton Limited
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

Wilder Journeys cover art
Running Is a Kind of Dreaming cover art
The Lost Rainforests of Britain cover art
Cider with Rosie cover art
Finding Hildasay cover art
The Gathering Place cover art
The Children's Fire cover art
A Line Above the Sky cover art
Hermit cover art

What listeners say about Windswept

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    9
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    2
Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    6
  • 4 Stars
    2
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    1
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    8
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    1

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Interesting but..

An interesting account of women walking but spoiled for me by the reader’s use of high rising tone to end most sentences. It makes her sound questioning and puzzled for much of the book. Irritating.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

love it!

"From outer strength comes inner freedom."

"I asked male friends if they ever walked with fear, they looked at me with incomprehension."

We follow Abbs as she walks through a part of France, and while she talks about her walks, she also gets into the amazing and often weird women that have walked so much it was part of what made them famous.

The whole book was just amazing. I loved learning about the women and their trailblazing days, about their lives and choices. Ultimately my favorite stories were on Simone de Beauvoir and Nan Shepherd. Both captured me and I felt a sense of belonging and a grear deal of companionship. I recognized myself in much of their parts, and it was enlightening, interesting and captivating all at once. It explores the differences in what it means to be a woman on a walk, vs being a man on a walk. As Abbs states in the book, most men don't even know what it means to be afraid when you walk alone. It gives perspective.

This is not a book that you go through and get some short anecdotes and happy go lucky ways of describing some short hikes. No, this book goes into the raw details, the lost toe nails from hiking, the dangerous mountain paths and screams for help where no one comes and helps. This book is not for the faint of heart, but it is for the adventurer looking for recognition in what it means to be a wanderer, a hiker, a solitude seeking explorer.

I love this book.

On the narrator, she was a bit too slow for my taste and I agree that it was a bit weird the way she went up at the ends, but ultimately I got so consumed by the book itself, and it helped to up the narration speed, that it didn't bother me.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful