Looking For Mrs Livingstone

Abridged by Laurence Wareing.

Read by Tamara Kennedy.

Scottish journalist and writer Julie Davidson journeys through contemporary Southern Africa in search of the traces that remain of Mary Livingstone: the courageous and stoical wife of renowned explorer and missionary, David Livingstone.

In the history books, Mary is hidden by her husband's shadow yet she played an important role in Livingstone's success and her own feats as an early traveller in uncharted Africa are unique. She was the first white woman to cross the Kalahari, which she did twice - pregnant - giving birth in the bush on the second journey. She was much more rooted in southern Africa than her husband: he has a tomb in Westminster Abbey, London; she has an obscure and crumbling grave on the banks of the Zambezi in a destitute region of Mozambique.

In the thrall of Africa, the author has travelled extensively over several years in the footsteps of Mary Livingstone, from her birthplace in a remote district of South Africa to her grave on the Zambezi. She explores the places the Livingstones knew as a couple and, above all, explores the detail of the life and family of this little-known figure in British - but not African - history.

Produced by Kirsteen Cameron.

A journey through Southern Africa in search of Mary, the wife of David Livingstone.

Read by Tamara Kennedy.

Scottish journalist and writer Julie Davidson journeys through Southern Africa in the footsteps of Mary Livingstone: the courageous and stoical wife of renowned explorer and missionary, David Livingstone.

In today's episode, the author travels through the Kalahari Desert to reach the mission station at Kuruman ('the oasis of the Kalahari') where Mary and David Livingstone were married in 1845. The mission station was established in the 1820s by Mary's parents, the Moffats, and is famous for its church which still stands there today.

Abridged by Laurence Wareing.

Produced by Kirsteen Cameron.

The author visits the Kalahari mission station where the Livingstones were married in 1845

Read by Tamara Kennedy.

Scottish journalist and writer Julie Davidson travels through Southern Africa in the footsteps of Mary Livingstone: the courageous and stoical wife of renowned explorer and missionary, David Livingstone.

In today's episode, the dangers and hardships of being a Victorian missionary wife are revealed in an account of a journey through the Kalahari Desert made by Mary Livingstone (heavily pregnant and with two young children in tow) in the wake of her explorer husband. David.

Abridged by Laurence Wareing.

Produced by Kirsteen Cameron.

A pregnant Mary Livingstone crossed the Kalahari in the wake of her explorer husband.

Writer Julie Davidson travels in the footsteps of of Mary Livingstone, the courageous and stoical wife of renowned explorer and missionary, David Livingstone.

Mary Livingstone and her young family are sent to stay with relatives in Scotland, to allow her intrepid husband to travel unencumbered for four years, plotting a route from the Cape through to the Indian Ocean. It was a dark and lonely time for Mary, who was born and brought up in Africa, and who dearly missed her home and the support of her husband.

Abridged by Laurence Wareing.

Produced by Kirsteen Cameron.

Mary Livingstone endures four lonely years away from her husband in Britain.

Writer Julie Davidson searches for traces of Mary Livingstone, the courageous and stoical wife of renowned explorer and missionary, David Livingstone.

The author's travels through Southern Africa come to an end, when she reaches Mary Livingstone's final resting place: a crumbling grave on the banks of the Zambezi River, in a remote part of Mozambique.

Abridged by Laurence Wareing.

Produced by Kirsteen Cameron.

The author reaches Mary's final resting place - a grave on the banks of the Zambezi River.