Winter Shoes in Springtime

Darleen R. Golke is a high-school teacher-librarian in Winnipeg,
Manitoba.

These two volumes detail Beryl Smeeton’s experiences traveling as a
woman alone throughout Asia, Europe, and South America in the 1930s.
Winter Shoes in Springtime records her 1935 adventures traveling
overland through Persia (Iran) and Russia. The following year she
traversed the Trans-Siberian railway across Russia and visited Japan and
Hong Kong, and traveled on foot, by bus, or in third-class railway
compartments across parts of China and Burma. The Stars My Blanket
recounts her 1937–38 experiences in South America—including a
1000-mile trek across the Andes—and a journey into Burma, Siam, and
French Indo-China at the outbreak of World War II. This ardent tourist
had “an irrational fear of being taken for one”—hence her
preference for unconventional modes of travel and accommodation.
According to her second husband, Miles Smeeton, “she thought nothing
of bedbugs and fleas, or even lice.” Her lively and entertaining
travel memoirs radiate with enthusiasm and boundless fascination with
the intricate details of daily life.