Land of the Snow Lion, An Adventure in Tibet, by Elaine Brook

Elaine Brook is one of the first English women to have explored Tibet since the Chinese occupation of 1951. In 1982 she joined a mountaineering expedition, determined, once the others had begun their ascent of Shishapangma, to set off on her own travels. She had no formal permission to wander alone in remote areas of Tibet and had many brushes with her anarchic companions and Chinese bureaucracy before her adventures got into full swing.