Helen's African Journey

<p>If I had said that I intended to fly the Atlantic alone it would not have caused more wonderment to my friends than this proposed trip by myself. That I would die of fever be eaten by a lion be abducted by natives or marry a ne'er-do-well were all expected by one or another.</p><p>-Helen Odell</p><p> </p><p>In 1934 Helen Odell thirty-two-years-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.</p><p> </p><p>Years later Helen's daughter discovered the trove 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.</p>