author
Mildred Cable
1878–1952
A British missionary and travel writer, she became known for bold journeys across inland China and Central Asia, often in the company of Francesca and Eva French. Her books bring together adventure, faith, and close observation of places many Western readers had never seen.
1 Audiobook
About the author
Born in Guildford, England, in 1878, Alice Mildred Cable served with the China Inland Mission and spent much of her life in China. She first worked in education and evangelistic work, then became part of a well-known missionary trio with sisters Francesca and Eva French.
Cable is especially remembered for traveling through remote parts of northwestern China and Central Asia, including Gansu and Xinjiang. Those demanding journeys shaped the books she later wrote, which helped introduce readers to caravan routes, desert landscapes, and the daily lives of people living far from the treaty ports and large coastal cities.
Alongside her missionary work, she built a lasting reputation as a writer of travel and missionary literature. She died in 1952, but her work still stands out for its unusual mix of endurance, curiosity, and firsthand experience of regions that were rarely described in English at the time.