Helen’s African Journey: a 1934 visit

Written by Judith G. duPont

In 1934, Helen Odell, thirty-two-year-old and single, defied her skeptical friends and the conventions of the day, and set off to visit an English acquaintance in Africa. She ended up meeting politicians and farmers, diplomats and artists, during a five-month adventure that took her as far away as the Cape of Good Hope.

Years later Helen’s daughter discovered the drive of diaries, letters and photos detailing an extraordinary woman’s solo travels. From life on three different ocean liners as well as in colonial Southern Rhodesia and South Africa, Judith G duPont brings her mother’s story to light in an engaging memoir.

Judith G. duPont is the author of Murder at Darling Hill and lives in Stonington, Connecticut.