SOLO

LoveReading Says

Jenny Tough’s unique adventures first came to my attention a few years ago when she was midway through her mission to run across a mountain range in each of six continents. I subsequently went to see her being interviewed in a cosy venue in a pretty northern town, answering questions about everything from kit and cooking to safety and training. She was funny, she was relaxed, she was authentic and she didn’t look like someone who had recently had a near-death experience on an unstable cliff in the Tien Shan mountains of Kyrgyzstan. Jenny Tough lives by her own promise that “You’re tougher than you think”. And by the way, yes that is her birth name.

The episode on that cliff is of course just one moment of misadventure in these six chapters of adventure story-telling, and even though it came early on, it wasn’t enough to put her off. From there she went on to Morocco, Bolivia, New Zealand, Canada (her home turf) and finally Transylvania. Across these territories she is constantly underestimated by most of the people she meets, raising eyebrows, looking her up and down, warning her off, offering her rides, telling her she won’t make it and generally dragging her down and flexing her imposter syndrome to the max. Men in particular seem the most perplexed by her courage and ambition which they interpret as stupidity. She is also, it must be said, met with the very best aspects of human compassion, generosity and warmth, sometimes coming from surprising places. Whatever’s happening Jenny simply soaks it up or brushes it off and runs on, relentlessly, living day to day, pushing her limits and figuring stuff out.

What’s unusual about this project compared with other big adventures is that by taking five years to complete, the person at the end is probably going to be a lot different to the one who started out. You might say the same about any adventure but the length, breadth and cultural variety involved sets it apart from anything else I can think of. In the end she doesn’t claim to have all the answers to the big questions but she has certainly found some. When you are unsupported and exposed to risk for long periods, you are at the edge of your experience and there are clearly things to be learned there. It was obvious to me as each chapter began it was a stronger and wiser person lacing up the shoes.

The fact she is a woman is of course fundamental to fully appreciating this book. Those under-pinning human qualities of self-belief, perseverance, resilience, bravery and so on, although not gender-specific are certainly less celebrated for women and have been buried deeper by centuries of social programming. Perhaps for that they are more powerful when they are needed and what Solo does is present them in an adventure context.

This much-anticipated book from Jenny Tough is a super-odyssey of endurance and self-discovery which is beyond nearly all of us but maybe, just maybe, also within most of us. You’re tougher than you think.

Greg Hackett

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