Author Talk: Caroline Paul – “Tough Broad”

A Special Evening with Caroline Paul, author of Tough Broad: From Boogie Boarding to Wing Walking—How Outdoor Adventure Improves Us as We Age

Caroline Paul, the New York Times-bestselling author of The Gutsy Girl, has always filled her life with adventure. From mountain biking in the Bolivian Andes to pitching a tent, mid-blizzard, on Alaskan mountain Denali, the tallest in North America, she has never been a stranger to the exhilaration that the outdoors can bring. But through it all, she has always wondered, Why aren’t women, like men, encouraged to keep adventuring into old age?

Now 60, she expects the next stage of life to be every bit as invigorating and full of high adrenalin escapades as the current one. In her just-published book, Tough Broad, Caroline dives deep into the current research on aging, and interviews older women who exemplify the confidence and well-being that come from embracing the outdoors. Among them are 93-year-old hiker Dot Fisher-Smith; 80-year-old scuba diver Louise Wholey; and her own mom, Sarah Paul, who began bicycling later in life.

Growing up, Caroline Paul lived in Cornwall and attended Cornwall Consolidated School. She explains that it is that sense of excitement and exhilaration that came from riding her bike down Dibble Hill at ten years old which “infuses every book I write now.”  And it was Cornwall where she first learned that adventure means “a quest outside, often with trusted companions, not always easy, but brimming with the delight of uncertainty, physical vitality, and freedom.“

Combining science, cultural studies, psychology, and personal stories, Tough Broad is a quest to understand not just how to live a dynamic life in a changing body, but why we must; it is a high-spirited call for all of us to embrace the outdoors, not back away from it, as we age.

Caroline will be back in Cornwall on May 18th to talk about her new book. She will be welcomed back and introduced by her childhood friend, Henry LaBalme, a Cornwall resident.

Registration is required.