Recollections of Tartar Steppes and Their Inhabitants

Recollections of Tartar Steppes, published in 1863, is a lost classic of women's travel writing by Lucy Atkinson, who journeyed with her husband Thomas Witlam Atkinson from Moscow to Central Asia, covering 40,000 miles and enduring a pregnancy on horseback. Their son survived and accompanied them for five years, traversing the Djungar Alatau Mountains, Altai Mountains, and Irkutsk. Atkinson actively participated in the journey, handling horses, camels, and shooting. She vividly describes her experiences, including encounters with Kazakh chieftains, negotiations, and a rowing boat trip on Lake Baikal. The book is out of print, but a new edition includes an introduction by Nick Fielding and Marianne Simpson, a direct descendant of Atkinson's brother.

\n Format: Paperback / softback
\n Length: 332 pages
\n Publication date: 30 September 2021
\n Publisher: Signal Books Ltd
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Recollections of Tartar Steppes, first published in 1863, is a lost classic of women's travel writing that remains one of the earliest and best examples of the genre. In February 1848, the erstwhile English governess Lucy Atkinson set off from Moscow with her new husband Thomas Witlam Atkinson on a journey that would eventually last almost six years and cover more than 40,000 miles through the unknown wastes of Siberia and Central Asia. To add to the challenge, Lucy found soon after setting off that she was pregnant. Having barely ever ridden in her life, she spent her entire pregnancy on horseback, before giving birth to a son in a yurt in a remote corner of Central Asia. Remarkably, her child survived and for the next five years accompanied his parents wherever they traveled - through the Djungar Alatau Mountains on the borders with China, the Altai Mountains in southern Siberia, and then thousands of miles east to Irkutsk, Lake Baikal, and the Sayan Mountains. Lucy Atkinson was not simply a passive witness on this remarkable journey, but an active participant, handling horses and camels, organizing Cossack and local guides, and learning to shoot for the pot. On several occasions, she leveled a rifle to protect her husband when he was threatened by brigands. Throughout this book, based on diaries she kept, she brings to life her remarkable experiences, whether sharing a meal with a Kazakh chieftain, negotiating the hire of reindeer to carry her baby son, or setting off for two weeks in an open rowing boat onto the unpredictable waters of Lake Baikal. During the bitter winters, when the Atkinsons hunkered down in one of the scattered towns of Siberia to avoid the worst of the sub-zero temperatures, she was a sensation at the soirées and parties that punctuated the long, dark.

\n Weight: 360g\n
Dimension: 140 x 207 x 30 (mm)\n
ISBN-13: 9781909930971\n \n