LADY TRADER, a biography of Mrs Sarah Heckford

243pp., foxing to endpapers hardback, London, Johannesburg & Cape Town, 1979

Vivien Allen's biography of Sarah Heckford (1839 - 1903), who sailed from England to Durban in 1878, trekked to the Transvaal and worked as a governess, doctor, builder, nurse and farmer. When her farm failed she made her fortune as a "smous", trading goods with hunters and miners in the Lowveld. In 1882 she published an account of her life and adventures entitled "A Lady Trader in the Transvaal".