As an adult she was befriended by Denys Finch-Hatton, the big-game hunter of Out of Africa fame, who took her flying in his airplane. Markham was taken to Kenya at the age of four. It tells the spellbinding story of Beryl Markham - aviator, racehorse trainer, fascinating beauty - and her life in the Kenya of the 1920s and 30s. West with the Night appeared on thirteen bestseller lists on first publication in 1942. 'A vivacious account of an eccentric life' DAILY MAIL 'A beautiful and evocative story' TIME OUT I wish you would get it and read it because it is really a bloody wonderful book' Hailed as "one of the greatest adventure books of all time" by Newsweek and "the sort of book that makes you think human beings can do anything" by the New York Times, West with the Night remains a powerful testament to one of the iconic lives of the twentieth century.ERNEST HEMINGWAY wrote to a friend: 'She can write rings around all of us.
Markham's successes and her failures-and her deep, lifelong love of the "soul of Africa"-are all told here with wrenching honesty and agile wit. In 1936, she accepted the ultimate challenge: to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean from east to west, a feat that fellow female aviator Amelia Earhart had completed in reverse just a few years before. She trained as a bush pilot at a time when most Africans had never seen a plane. A contemporary of Karen Blixen (better known as Isak Dinesen, the author of Out of Africa), Markham left an enduring memoir that soars with astounding candor and shimmering insights.Ī rebel from a young age, the British-born Markham was raised in Kenya's unforgiving farmlands.
Not only did she set records and break barriers as a pilot, she shattered societal expectations, threw herself into torrid love affairs, survived desperate crash landings-and chronicled everything. The classic memoir of Africa, aviation, and adventure-the inspiration for Paula McLain's Circling the Sun and "a bloody wonderful book" (Ernest Hemingway).īeryl Markham's life story is a true epic.
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