Joan: The Story of an Unconventional Life

During a journey through a time of the greatest social change of our modern world, Joan Wood embraces the evolution of a new age for women. Her story is told in an almost naïve-like genre where social context and emotional resonance are given over to an intellectual and physical experience of her world. This is a story of intellectual resilience where a lack of opportunity begat a life of endeavour in every given thing.

Her first person narrative begins just before the Second World War and takes us through the life of a young woman in the 1950s living in a bohemian quarter of London.

In the 1970s in rural New Zealand, Joan, at age thirty-seven defies the expectations of what women should and could do by embarking on a long academic career, earning many 'firsts' for a woman and ultimately pioneering the inclusion of computer science as a subject into the New Zealand school curriculum.

Later, during Joan's 'Third Age', physical activity becomes a passion, resulting in another extraordinary 'first'. Joan has always been a physical person and the book is delightfully sprinkled throughout with accounts of her lifelong pursuit of unusual sports, unique hobbies and great adventures.

Joan's story is told by a woman of great intellect for whom the way forward was determined not by gender but by intelligence, fearlessness and determination.