Windswept: Walking in the Footsteps of Remarkable Women

Tue 3 May 2022

slq Auditorium 1, level 2, State Library

Main Festival

#Performances

#About the event

Duration: 60 minutes

Windswept: Why Women Walk explores the walking lives of six remarkable women, some better known than others. Georgia O’Keefe, Nan Shepherd and Daphne Du Maurier walked remote paths – how did that alter them? Part memoir, too, Annabel Abbs reflects on how walking and creativity are linked, and how walking off into the wilds inspired these women.

Annabel Abbs in conversation with Sally Piper

#Artists

Annabel Abbs

Annabel Abbs is a writer of fiction and non-fiction. Her first novel, The Joyce Girl, tells the story of James Joyce's daughter, won the Impress New Writer Prize, was translated into 10 languages and is currently being adapted for the stage. Her second novel, Frieda: The Real Lady Chatterley, was a Times Book of the Year 2018, and was translated into seven languages.

Her memoir and history of wild walking women, Windswept, was published to great acclaim in June 2021. Her third novel, The Language of Food, tells the story of poet and cookery writer, Eliza Acton. It has been translated into 20 languages, and is currently being adapted for the screen by CBS Studios.

Annabel has a degree in English Literature from UEA and is a Fellow of the Brown Foundation. She grew up in Wales but now lives in London and Sussex where she spends her time cooking, walking, reading and writing.

Sally Piper

Sally Piper is the author of three novels. Her most recent Bone Memories was a finalist in the 2023 Queensland Literary Awards for a Work of State Significance, the Courier Mail People’s Choice Queensland Book of the Year Award and was longlisted for the 2023 Dublin Literary Award and a Davitt Award. Her short fiction and non-fiction have appeared in various publications to include Griffith Review, The Saturday Paper, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Weekend Australian.