Looking for Antarctica

Read the essay in
South America: An Anthology of Travel Writing
Published July 2025 by
Bradt Guides
The world’s leading independent travel publisher
Available at
BradtGuides.com
Stanfords.co.uk
Amazon

Janette’s Story: “I am.”
A personal story about arrivals and departures, illness and health, growing up and growing older, and talking to horses.

After retiring from a distinguished career in education and health, Jay Courtney found life rather beige. ‘I realised that I didn’t know how to do this part of my life’ she says. ‘There was no route map to follow, only a looming ‘Exit’ sign, so I went on a quest to find a colour that suited me.’ Courtney’s métier transpired to blend travel and inspirational writing, combined with a talent for finding others whose experiences resonate. In Juicy Crones she fêtes the lives of women embracing their ‘third act’ with gusto. Courtney’s debut is a unique title with an infectious enthusiasm for living life to the full, that blends adventure with feminism, women’s health with well-being, and autobiography with self-help. This is a book for women adventurers and for fans of Raynor Winn’s The Salt Path, Caitlin Moran’s More than a Woman and Helen Lewis’ Difficult Women.

‘Free for the Strangest Adventures’ is a quotation from the novel To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf. ‘For me it represents the state of mind that enables a Crone to be juicy!’ says Courtney. ‘This is when the magic happens.’