Markham and her father moved to Kenya when she was a girl, and she grew up with a zebra for a pet, horses for friends, and baboons, lions, leopards, and gazelles for neighbors. She made money by scouting elephants from a tiny plane and would spend most of the rest of her life in East Africa as an adventurer, a racehorse trainer, and an aviatrix — she became the first person to fly nonstop from Europe to America.
Dedication: For My Father
Opening quote:
I speak of Africa and golden joysOpening: BOOK ONE: I: Message from Nungwe:
HENRY IV, Act V, Sc.3
How is it possible to bring order out of memory? I should like to begin at the beginning, paiently, like a weaver at his loom. I should like to say, 'This is the place to start; there can be no other.'
MUTHAIGA COUNTRY CLUB
I remained so happily provincial I was unable to discuss the boredom of being alive with any intelligence until I had gone to London and lived there a year. Boredom, like hookworm, is endemic.
Denys Finch Hatton
How quick this reads; it is over almost before it has begun. The typeset and size is easy on the eyes.
Now there is the either/or question
Blixen or Markham