Beryl Markham was born in England in 1903. When she was four in 1907, she moved to British East Africa (Kenya) with her father where he was building up a farm. Beryl grew up in a male dominated world with an unheard degree of freedom. She went barefoot hunting with the young native Nandies, had a zebra as a pet and horses as her friends.
She was quite young when she trained racehorses and won big prestigious races. Beryl also discovered early on the magic of flying and later on she became a professional pilot. From her small Avian aeroplane she flew transport- and post consignments. She spotted elephants from the air for the wild game hunters too.
Privately she lived a glamorous life. She easily changed between the African savanna and London’s posh circles. Beryl Markham had a series of lovers amongst which was Denys Finch Hatton; she went hunting with Bror Blixen and she knew Karen Blixen rather well, but became a rival rather than a friend of hers.
Beryl Markham became world famous when she as the first woman flew alone across the Atlantic Ocean in 1936. A trip which became nail bitingly exciting as she had to crash land before she reached her final destination in New York. Luckily the trip ended happily, and she was greeted as a heroine in New York City.
When she grew older, she went back to work as a horse trainer in Nairobi where she died in 1986.
West With The Night is not only a well written book telling the reader about Beryl Markham’s many merits. It is also a book which portraits the time in which she does a lot of quite politically incorrect things, but in fact she has a very modern attitude e.g. she condemns the shooting of elephants just for the sake of their tusks.
The memoir West With The Night was published in 1942, but due to WW2 it first became an international bestselling book when it was republished in the US in 1983. Let me end my review by quoting Ernest Hemingway who brazenly said about West With The Night: Damn Wonderful.
No need to say anymore. Enjoy!
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