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Brought to you by Penguin

Heartfelt passionate infuriating and often devastating this book will inspire you to fight for your right to tread your own path CAROLINE CRIADO PEREZ author of Invisible Women

When Rachel loses five family members in five months grief magnifies other absences Running across moors and mountains used to help her feel at home in her body and the world but now she becomes painfully aware of her inability to run without being catcalled or followed by strange men or to walk alone at night without fear Her eyes are opened to injustices facing women in sport from men who push her off paths during races to male bias in competition regulations kit and media coverage The outdoors becomes a place of danger sharpening her sense of the grief women experience every day everywhere for lack of freedom

Rachel goes in search of a new family the foremothers who blazed a trail at the dawn of outdoor sport She discovers Lizzie Le Blond a courageous AngloIrishwoman who scaled the Alps in woollen skirts photographed fearless women climbing skating and tobogganing at breakneck speeds and founded the Ladies Alpine Club defying men who wanted the mountains to themselves Yet after such groundbreaking progress in the late 1800s a backlash drove women out of sports and public space

Are we now living through a similar reversal in womens rights or an era of unprecedented liberty Telling Lizzies story alongside her own Rachel runs her way from bereavement to belonging in a world that feels hostile to women On the way shes inspired by the tenacious women past and present who insist that breaking boundaries outdoors is and always has been in her nature

2023 Rachel Hewitt P2023 Penguin Audio