Despite COVID delays, my new book on the first woman to circumnavigate the globe has finally been launched in Australia. In Search of the Woman who Sailed the World proved to be a challenging book to write from navigating 18th century handwritten French archives to reconstructing the past in locations like Mauritius, Burgundy, New Guinea and Pacific Islands.

The resulting book is a weave of biography, memoir, nature, travel, science, feminism and history. The story of Jeanne Barret's journey and life is woven into my research journey as well as reflections on my own childhood on a boat and the changes to the ocean and environment. The book is, I hope, "an ode to the sea, to science and to a remarkable woman who, like all explorers, charted her own course for others to follow."
If you are in Australia, the book is in bookstores now (or from this Booktopia author affiliate link). If not, you can read a short essay I wrote on the challenges of reconstructing the lives of women in history here.