Reading this book made me angry, sad, furious and disappointed in the world. The author did something not many people did in the beginning of the 80, something not many people do even today when they have mobile phones, gps and all possible comfort to make travelling around the world easier and it took 30 YEARS for anyone to recognise it, to take any notice that wasn't drown in sexism. I sat down with Elspeth the afternoon before her presentation at San Francisco’s Piston and Chain last month, to talk with her about her travels and her book, Lone Rider. As a fellow twenty-three year old woman on a long distance, solo motorcycle trip (albeit significantly less than 35,000 miles), it was unlikely that I wouldn't enjoy this book. However, I didn't expect to enjoy it quite as much as I did. It was the intimacy, vulnerability, and rawness of her memoir that engaged me, and I really identified with Elspeth's character in a way that I hadn't expected to. I often find it difficult to stumble upon women like her, and I think that part of the reason I was so enthralled with her story was the headstrong and unapologetic way she responded to what were often devastating and incalculable challenges. It is romantic, factual and says a lot for the true British spirit and oblivious nature to overcome any task or hardship to achieve your goals. Beard currently runs the Elspeth Beard Architects practice in Godalming. She received her pilot's licence in 1991. She has never married, but has a son. [5] Motorcycling [ edit ]

I learned that I could cope and deal with anything, I was not afraid to take anything on and believe that there is never a problem that I cannot solve. This self-belief gives me the confidence to take on any new challenges and not to be afraid of anything. It taught me to think out of the box and approach problems in a different way to solve them and I have used this in my life and work ever since. She also bats away unwanted advances. A lesser person may have struggled with the male attitudes that were present in many of the countries she travelled through at the time. She copes well, too, with the inevitable crippling poverty she finds in many of the countries she visits. a b c d "Famous Firsts For Women". Trivia South Africa. 21 August 2014. Archived from the original on 5 April 2016 . Retrieved 19 April 2016. The keys were still in her ignition, so I twisted them. She fired up immediately, and didn’t sound too bad. Not for the first time, I thanked solid German engineering. Behind me, the family cheered, clapped, talked excitedly.If you're looking for a story of a vulnerable women conquering the world, keep looking. She literally destroyed a fellow rider along the way. The ending of this story was a real gut punch. Lone Rider: The First British Woman to Motorcycle Around the World, Autobiography, 2017, ISBN 9781782438045

My family almost pretended as if it was a little bit of a blip in my development. Now that I’ve got it out of my system, I was normal. Before I met Elspeth Beard it was hard to find much information about her and her epic ride. Partly because she had moved on with her life and all memories of the trip had been pushed to the side.That was me on my first bike, my little Yamaha,” she tells me, scrolling though her old pictures on her tablet. “I must have been about 18 or 20? There was my first helmet. That was my second bike, my Honda 250. Me at the airport. That’s what my bike was like, you can see I’ve got the big five gallon tank on there. After her motorcycling feat, Beard bought the derelict Munstead Tower in Godalming, a 130-foot (40m) former water tower built in 1898. Over five years, she renovated and converted it into a habitable house. The renovated tower was featured on a 1995 episode of Home Front, and in 1994, the tower won the Royal Institute of British Architects award for South East England. [16] [9] In 2019 Beard and the tower were featured in the Season 3 episode 1 of Ride with Norman Reedus. [ citation needed] The principal bedroom of the tower also featured in the 2022 film Rogue Agent.