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bimac09 's review for:
West with the Night
by Beryl Markham
West With The Night by Beryl Markham is the 1942 memoir of Beryl Markham, a fearless and captivating woman who battled against the male dominated society of her time. It chronicles her life growing up in British East Africa, now Kenya, in the early 1900’s.
She writes of her early life, growing up more among the local tribe, the Kipsigis, than raised by her father. She is more comfortable among the natives, wild animals, and the horses she and her father raise than among the other British settlers. Despite hardships, she becomes the first woman licensed horse trainer in Africa training several winners.
But she doesn’t stop there. After meeting Finch Hatton, she wants to learn to fly, and becomes a bush pilot, flying to spot big game for hunters and delivering mail and medical supplies when needed. However, she is most well known for being the first women to fly from England to North America flying from East to West. It was a difficult and dangerous flight, since she was flying alone, against the wind, in the dark sitting in a plane full of fuel.
This book is beautifully written so that British East Africa comes alive in all its colors. The fact that the authorship of the book is in question does not detract from the beauty of the writing. Since I knew very little about this remarkable woman, it was intriguing to find such a successful woman in a male dominated world at that time. She truly was a woman living life to its fullest before her time.
She writes of her early life, growing up more among the local tribe, the Kipsigis, than raised by her father. She is more comfortable among the natives, wild animals, and the horses she and her father raise than among the other British settlers. Despite hardships, she becomes the first woman licensed horse trainer in Africa training several winners.
But she doesn’t stop there. After meeting Finch Hatton, she wants to learn to fly, and becomes a bush pilot, flying to spot big game for hunters and delivering mail and medical supplies when needed. However, she is most well known for being the first women to fly from England to North America flying from East to West. It was a difficult and dangerous flight, since she was flying alone, against the wind, in the dark sitting in a plane full of fuel.
This book is beautifully written so that British East Africa comes alive in all its colors. The fact that the authorship of the book is in question does not detract from the beauty of the writing. Since I knew very little about this remarkable woman, it was intriguing to find such a successful woman in a male dominated world at that time. She truly was a woman living life to its fullest before her time.