By combining extracts from their most famous works with Rees' insightful essays, Women on the Nile illuminates the life and writings of three remarkable women and captures something of the romance of 19th century travel to the East. Harriet Martineau was a doughty and influential campaigner for multiple social causes; Florence Nightingale became a universally acclaimed reformer of nursing and hospital practices; Amelia Edwards, formerly a novelist and prolific professional writer, returned from Egypt to found the Egypt Exploration Society and endow the first Chair of Egyptology at a British University. All three were independent-minded women of strong character and exceptional gifts. They were accomplished writers, each with a distinctive style, and their accounts of their Nile journeys are richly individual and full of life, thought and observation.