Isabella Lucy Bird (Mrs Bishop) was born in 1831. She won fame in her own time as surely the most remarkable woman traveller of the nineteenth century. Her visit to Hawaii was the first of the exotic journeys that would later take her to Korea, Japan and many other places. She published nine books about her travels, all of them bestsellers in their day, and her writing is guaranteed to produce a thirst for adventure and travel. She died in Edinburgh in 1904.