Evelyn Cheesman was principally an entomologist and incidentally an explorer. In her search for insects and her attempt to prove a theory concerning a land bridge between Asia and Australia, she traveled throughout the South Pacific, camping in areas where no white man, let alone a white woman, had ever been. Although she did not intentionally write travel books, her descriptions of her insect-hunting expeditions provide insights into the places where she lived and the people she encountered. Jane Robinson describes Cheesman as a woman who "travelled professionally," but this description is misleading. Travel was never Cheesman's main focus; it was the means for finding new species of insects or proving her theory. Her books, which sold well, were written to fund her expeditions.

Born in Westwell, Kent, Lucy Evelyn Cheesman (who neither liked nor used her first name) was the daughter of Robert Cheesman, a farmer, and...