Lucy Atkinson’s superb book is republished

I am delighted to report that Lucy Atkinson’s book, Recollections of Tartar Steppes and their Inhabitants, first published in 1863, has now been republished by Signal Books of Oxford. The first edition, published by John Murray, was issued in a small edition of just 900 copies and soon became a rarity. It was republished in 1972 by Cass, but that edition is also scarce.

The new edition includes a new 66-page introduction by myself and Marianne Simpson, who is a direct descendant of Lucy’s brother, Matthew Finley. This is the first attempt at a biography of Lucy and contains many previously unknown details about this remarkable woman. For example, it reveals that her uncle, Joseph Sherrard, after whom she received her middle name, was also a distinguished maritime traveller, having first visited Australia before 1800 and having sailed in the Royal Navy with Captain Bligh and other important explorers of the southern seas.

The new introduction also asserts that Lucy’s book is one of the earliest serious travel books written by a woman. Most travel accounts in the nineteenth century were written by women who were usually travelling in the company of their husband or a family member and on their way to a particular destination. They seldom spent time in the saddle or setting up camp in remote places, as was the case with Lucy. Only a handful of similar accounts exist and Lucy’s book stands up well against the best of them. And certainly few of them travelled 40,000 miles or travelled for five or six years like Lucy.

The introduction also explains, for the first time, the background to Thomas Atkinson’s bigamous marriage to Lucy. It seems very likely she knew about his previous marriage and certainly never held it against him, signing her book, published two years after his death, as ‘Mrs Atkinson’. Divorce at the time was impossible except by a private Act of Parliament. However, the existence of the first marriage is probably the reason that his two books of travel, in which Lucy and their child Alatau are not mentioned, were so disjointed. There is evidence that Thomas was required to remove all references to Lucy and Alatau in order not to humiliate Rebecca, his first wife.

Lucy’s achievements as an explorer place her amongst the best. There are many men celebrated as explorers who didn’t go through half of what she experienced over the course of six years and 40,000 miles of travel. Her book is a classic, full of warmth and wonderful descriptions of the people she met and amongst whom she always left a wonderful impression.