The Hard Way: Discovering the Women Who Walked Before Us

by Susannah Walker

Why is it radical for women to walk alone in the countryside, when men have been doing so for centuries? The Hard Way is a powerful and illuminating book about addressing this imbalance, reclaiming fearlessness and diving into the history of the landscape from a woman’s point of view.

Setting off to follow the oldest paths in England, the Ridgeway and the Harrow Way, Susannah Walker comes across artillery fire, concern from passing policemen and her own innate fear of lone figures in the distance: a landscape shaped by men, from prehistoric earthworks to today’s army bases.

But along the way, Susannah finds Edwardian feminists, rebellious widows, forgotten writers and artists, as well as all their anonymous sisters who stayed at home throughout history. They become her companions over 135 miles of walking, revealing how much, or how little, has changed for women now.

Genres: Nonfiction

256 pages, Hardcover

Published June 6, 2024

Reviews

[Haxxunne · Rating 5 out of 5]

For the last three years or so, I’ve been reading books by women writers, particularly non-fiction, rather than male ones, in order to have a more rounded perspective on the world. Alice Roberts rather than Dan Snow. Olivia Laing rather than Charlie Porter. Bettany Hughes rather than Michael Woods. The Hard Way is the latest in a fresh vein of women in the wild but the first to place it into the rude context that women endure, that a woman’s role in society is private and indoors as opposed to that of a man who can be public and outdoors. As an obvious example, Walker explores how women’s cooking is inside, in the kitchen, but men take charge of the barbecue because it”s outdoors and therefore men’s work.

Walker talks about safety work, how a woman needs to protect herself if she’s about to beard the wild outdoors, the natural world, the unknown, in ways that men (read that as cis, white men) don’t. On her walks along ancient roads, she’s stopped twice by policemen in cars, as if a woman on her own out walking in the countryside in broad daylight is against social norm. She also illustrates what is left behind by male writers who write about their walking, namely their spouses, their children, their humdrum daily cares. Not one male writer whom she discusses acknowledges that they are only free to gallivant across the bucolic English countryside because there is a woman keeping the home fires burning, and most of them unwillingly so.

Walker also includes women who walked and wrote about their walking, and I cannot wait to get to Walker’s spiritual ancestors. Walker herself is a fantastically visceral and honest writer: she sets off on her first walk in an attempt to regain her younger fearlessness, but she hits her own walls and uncertainties. God knows I often don’t want to go out running when the weather turns for the worst, and although I can’t imagine how Walker feels as a woman simply wanting to walk in a world that daunts that desire, she makes it abundantly clear that it’s difficult and complicated and that there are no simple answers.

Except one: from her frustrations she has started Make Space For Girls, and that’s another story to be told.

As for The Hard Way, Walker’s almost alchemical book distils history, feminism, walking, the natural world and her fierce love for the outdoors into a journey of its own, that almost, but not quite, could be an alternative to the real thing.

A thumping good four and a half stars, rounded up to five.

[Joe Tristram · Rating 3 out of 5]

The great ancient trackways of Southern England is the theme of Susannah Walker's book, and the symbolism they hold in her life. I very much enjoyed the writing, the fascinating snippets of archaeology she uses to back up her ideas of the linked ways across the landscape, hill fort to hill fort, always with a ridge-top route to stay above boggy places and rivers. I found a clearer picture of prehistoric England than I've had before, the long distance trading and travelling, the sheep fairs, the driving of pigs hundreds of miles and the surprising persistence of tradition across the centuries or even millennia.
The story of women not being free to walk or roam without threat from men made a less satisfactory story. It's obviously true for Susannah and many others, though not for the women I asked about it. It's a terrible remnant of male power and more needs to be done to make it right. Susannah tries to find historical examples of individual women who aren't affected by this or a time when it wasn't the case, but can't. Her feelings are left unresolved, but then they have to be because the problem is real and unresolved. Finding a new understanding of the Ridgeway and the Harrow Way is not matched by finding a different way to feel about her plight and this gives an unsatisfactory last third of the book. I have a sense that she was hoping for something better but still had a book to get published.

[Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

Our book group have been shadow reviewing for the Women's Prize and during a discussion with the chair of Judges, we discussed how often books written by women are genre defying. This certainly applies to 3 of the non fiction titles on the shortlist for this year's Women's Prize and The Hard Way is another example of how women weave together narrative from their multi layered lives. It is a recurring theme in The Hard Way that men can be single minded in purpose regardless of domestic requirements leaving all of the practicalities of life to women. Over generations females have developed the art of thinking about several things at once and we are now seeing how that transfers into memoir. So if you are looking longingly out of your kitchen window and dreaming of walking along a high ridge with the breeze in your hair and the larks singing, this at last is an outdoors book written for you by someone who understands that the phone might ring from your child's school and you will probably have to stop off at Tesco on the way home for toilet roll! Don't be fooled though, Susannah Walker has researched her subject(s) and provides a fascinating look at the landscape, it's history and culture. A unique book that will encourage you to don your walking boots or get on your bike and look at our geography and our lives differently.

[Bookwormbadger · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this thought provoking book although it wasn't at all what I had expected. I had expected a book about a woman walking, and whilst this was at the heart of the narrative, the strongest message was about the impossibilities / difficulties women face when trying to go for a walk (principally caused by domesticity and motherhood) as well as the potential dangers they face (principally caused by men). It felt unsettlingly man-hating at times - it's not the fault of today's men that women / mothers find it hard to extricate themselves from their home and children - however as a mother of two who definitely fell into the "is this really what my life has become" category when they were small, I could also relate to much of what she was saying. Well written and interesting.
With thanks to NetGalley for my advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Kate Moreton · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting read. Slightly laboured the point but maybe I’m the wrong crowd (preaching to the converted). Still, I could relate to a lot of it in regards to the need for adventure, the truth of the ease with which men can go off for a wander whilst women have a million things to consider before they can leave the family home, and enjoyed the scenery described and the history covered.