'It was her long-standing interest in women writers - she held a Master's Degree in Women's Studies from George Washington University - that led her during her lengthy sojourn in London to research pioneering female explorers, eventually publishing On Top of the World: Five Women Explorers in Tibet, which brought back to memory the petticoated mountaineering exploits of Nina Mazuchelli, Annie Taylor, Isabella Bird Bishop, the American Fanny Bullock Workman and the French-born Alexandra David-Neel.'