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Early 1900s: A fictionalised account of Beryl Markham – a well known jockey, horse trainer and aviator who was involved in a love triangle with writer Karen Blixen and safari hunter Denys Finch Hatton (Out of Africa fame)
Circling the Sun
What you need to know before your trail
Beryl Markham was brought to Kenya from Britain as a child. The dream was that she and her parents would have a better life there but soon after arrival the mother returned home and she and her father would stay on together. Their relationship was not an easy one and Beryl was caught between extreme discipline and the freedom to do as she pleased with no mother to guide her.
following a disastrous marriage, she went on to become the first woman ever to hold a professional racehorse trainer’s licence. She also would go on to meet game hunter Denys Finch Hatton and the writer Karen Blixen (Out of Africa) but tragedy would soon follow…
Travel Guide
Beryl Markham was an extraordinary woman of her time. She emigrated when a very young child and entered the world of horse racing only to become one of its biggest and well known figures. In a man’s world and a man’s sport, particularly in the 1930s, this was no mean feat. She was also an aviator and like the infamous Amelia Earhart crossed the Atlantic.
Her professional life and spirit were the stuff of legends but this is the story of that and how her more personal life got in the way with what she achieved.
Beryl Markham, Denys Finch-Hatton, Karen Blixen were all very real and significant characters of their time and this is the fictional account of what could have happened
Despite the mix of fact and fiction, the sense of place stands out –
“The hill flattened out into a kind of plateau, and from there we could see straight down into the Rift Valley, its crags and ridges like pieces of a broken bowl. The rain had finally cleared, but a billowy ring of clouds rested over Kilimanjaro to the south, its flat top painted with snow and shadows.”
This is the story of history unfolding, of how the lush wild landscape of Beryl’s youth seemed to invigorate her and teach her the ways of the world, her determination and knock backs making her the woman she became. She was one of the favored and so called Happy Valley set – that bohemian community of European expats but she became something more.
Denys Finch Hatton would enter her life and help her to navigate her life in every sense of the world – first by aviation and secondly by a love affair like no other. Another world which she also excelled at.
But it is the world of Hatton, Blixen and Markham which would result in the biggest story of all.
Booktrailer Review
Clare:
WOW This can only be described as an epic read – a mix of fact and fiction that it’s hard to distinguish what is real and what is imagined but then it all seems very plausible and ultimately fascinating.
Having only seen Out of Africa many years ago, I had not really thought much about it since but this book took me back there to see the story behind the story and to see another chapter unfold. The love triangle was difficult to accept but easy to understand and I was more than astounded at what Beryl achieved in her professional life despite the disasters in her personal one.
Stories which allow you to meet historical characters and such pioneers as Beryl Markham are some of my favourite things to read as I walked in her shoes, saw Africa through her eyes and saw a new and exciting world of horse racing and aviation. I knew nothing of both and didn’t even realise I cared – until I read this novel.
In 1920s Kenya, the British expatriate community was quite the place to be. Who knew? Would have liked to know a little more than went on outside of the bedroom as this woman’s life was quite something without all that.
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