Lady Dorothy 'Dolly' Mills was a petite figure with a big personality, born in 1889 into the political and literary Walpole family. When she married a clever but poor army captain, her father disinherited her. Defying her background and the expectations of her sex, she became a renowned explorer in West Africa - she was the first English woman in Timbuktu - and beyond, travelling deep into Venezuela and Asia where only men had gone before. Dolly wrote acclaimed travel books illuminating remote places and peoples and describing history in the making. By the 1930s she was the best-known female explorer of the day, appearing on platforms and in books with prominent men. She was elected an early female Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, and on her death in 1959 left a bequest for women explorers. A feminist with unorthodox views which cost her her marriage, Dolly also wrote bold novels and incisive features for women. Despite life-changing challenges, she never lost her love of donning a glamorous frock and downing a cocktail.
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