Jenny Steele Scolding - Retired Film and Television Researcher turned Author
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Jenny in Timbuktu, 1980
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
That’s difficult to answer because one’s sense of achievement changes throughout life and pride in accomplishment is subjective. Holding a family together is a great achievement – raising two wonderful children and helping a son with special needs to reach his full potential. But then I look back on myself, aged 23, with no science qualifications whatsoever, organising a programme of 1,000 science films which were screened at Expo 67, the world fair in Montreal or, a decade later, working in the Nigerian bush under harsh conditions teaching English to young women. Perhaps solo travel has affected me most – from hitch-hiking up Africa, to backpacking around China aged 64. Now, aged 77, I have looked back on my life and pulled all these strands together by writing my memoirs: VAGABOND GIRL, Life and love on the road from Tel Aviv to Timbuktu. That took three years and yes, I’m proud of that.
What motivates you to do what you do?
Two things really: a great love of people and also new challenges. I find it very hard to say ‘No’ to unexpected opportunities. If I get a chance to do something new and exciting I go for it, whether or not I have the appropriate experience or qualifications.
What do you owe your mother?
In many ways my mother was a typical 1950s housewife, but she was also an artist who made me very aware of colour and light. A strong woman, she raised me with the confidence to be unconventional and wild and she instilled in me exuberance, a love of life and of people.
Which women inspire you and why?
Women explorers have always been my inspiration, intrepid, adventurous women who ignored the conventions of the time. Alexandra David-Néel (1868-1969) for example, the first European woman to see Lhasa, when it was forbidden to foreigners. She was an opera singer, anarchist, Buddhist scholar, pioneering traveller and prolific author. ‘No commandments!’ she said. ‘ Live your life, live your instinct.’ I love that!
Mary Kingsley (1862-1900) is another favourite. She travelled alone through West Africa, encountering numerous life-threatening situations. An ethnographer and scientific writer, she was also sympathetic towards black Africans at a time when it was frowned upon. There are loads more, from Isabella Bird and Mary Slessor to Marianne North and Florence Baker…the list is endless.
And in today’s world I find Mary Beard inspiring. I love the way she brings classics to the masses through people-focused social history. I love her quirky interpretation of art and life in general. Despite criticism and trolling, she always remains herself – cycling around with her long wild hair and practical trainers. And she stands up for women.
What are you reading?
I’m reading two books at the moment. I’m revisiting The Seven Pillars of Wisdom by T.E. Lawrence. I love his empathy with the Arabs and the way he analyses their customs. His descriptions of the desert and of the people he meets are extraordinary and poetic. At the same time, I’ve just embarked on Bernadine Evaristo’s Girl, Woman, Other. When I first opened it, I was put off by the lack of punctuation, but in no time at all I was gripped by the content.
What gender barriers have you had to hurdle?
Initially it was the assumption that, as a girl, it would be best for me to get a good job as a secretary. However, this didn’t necessarily work in other cultures. When I applied for a secretarial job in an Indian factory the boss had to get permission to employ me from head office, because it was deemed inappropriate to employ a woman. Travelling rough in male-dominated cultures could also be tricky; on the one hand I felt somewhat vulnerable, but on the other it was necessary to fend off over-protective males. Climbing onto the top of lorries and travelling through the desert with male truckers was also a strain during menstruation.
Attending a women’s group in Canada at the beginning of the seventies changed my life. We discussed women’s rights regarding education, employment, reproduction and health, all new concepts at the time. To exchange confidences with other women about sexuality, menstruation and relationships was also a new experience.
How can the world be made a better place for women?
An easy way to begin would be through education, starting at primary school. Small children should be taught egalitarian values regarding gender, race and everything else. A large step would be to work for worldwide cooperation between women, rather than everything being biased towards Western women and Western values. And there are obvious steps that would improve things – free childcare for all, better maternity care for all…so many practical things.
When I was in Nyerere’s socialist Tanzania in 1974, for every male minister in the government there was a female counterpart. This applied from the top, right down to grassroots level. It seemed to me an ideal way to go about things, and that would certainly make the world a better place for women.
Describe your perfect day?
I would wake up somewhere tropical. In the morning I would meet with local people, accepting their wonderful hospitality and learning about their lives and customs. I would then set off to explore all the nooks and crannies of a foreign city, discovering its cultural sights and history. Afterwards I would explore the nearby countryside and then end up relaxing in a bar, drinking the local hooch, eating something I’d never tried before, and discussing politics with the locals. Late at night I would climb into bed, tuck in the mosquito net, and drift off to sleep listening to the sound of a tropical night. Perfect.
We've noticed there really aren't many (if any) statues of women around Cornwall - who would you like to see remembered?
In the centre of Newlyn, I would like to see a statue representing the fishwives, or jowsters of the 19th/early 20th century. Some of them had to cover nine parishes on foot, carrying their own weight in fish and salt in baskets on their backs.
In 1851, fishwife Mary Kelynack, was determined to visit the Great Exhibition. Although 84 years old and penniless, she walked the 300 miles to London where she visited the Exhibition and met Queen Victoria and the Lord Mayor. Perhaps a statue of Mary would be appropriate to represent the jowsters and symbolise the tough approach and strength of Cornish women past and present.
Give us a tip?
Keep providing yourself with new challenges. That way you learn and your mind stays alive.
About Jenny
In 1964, aged 21, Jenny walked out of her job at the BBC and bought a one-way ticket on a steamer to Israel. She had just £20 in her pocket. So began her lifelong passion for the open road, travelling rough and living by her wits, in an era before mobile phones, ATMs and the internet. Her recently published memoirs VAGABOND GIRL, Life and love on the road from Tel Aviv to Timbuktu, chart her journey from a Surrey convent school to rural India and the desert wastes of Iran, Sudan and the Sahara. Hitch-hiking on trucks and sleeping anywhere – in doss houses, brothels, cow sheds, temples or beneath the open skies – she received extraordinary hospitality from people in all walks of life.
Taking whatever jobs came to hand, Jenny learnt how to survive in a male-dominated world, eventually working as a film and television researcher in Ottawa, New York and London. She moved to Cornwall in 1986 and after working for SKEUSOW, the Cornish Film and Television Association, she went on to teach English to students from overseas. In 2000 she was awarded a writer’s residency at Fundación Valparaíso in Spain and in 2006 her monologues – The Red Channel: Tales of Migration – were performed in London. In addition to her recent memoirs, she has written A Guide to Cornish Fish and two children’s books, Percy Pengelly and the Wibble-Wobble and Percy Pengelly and Tumbili the Monkey. She lives in Cadgwith on the Lizard Peninsula with her husband Bill, a graphic designer. Her children Gwen and Jake live nearby with their families.