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Review
A beautiful and evocative story that deserves to be ranked alongside Karen Blixen's OUT OF AFRICA (Time Out )
A poet's feeling for her land, an adventurer's response to life (New York HERALD Tribune )
A poet's feeling for her land, an adventurer's response to life (New York HERALD Tribune )
NEW YORK HERALD TRIBUNE
'A poet's feeling for her land, an adventurer's response to life'
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio Cassette
This book is a fanastic journey through colonial Africa by one the first female aviators. It captures the atmosphere of native Africa, at an exciting time in history, when motor cars still turned heads, and the idea of flying was almost ubsurd. It is an insight into the ways of whiteman on the continent and how the flying machine became used as a hunting machine as man sought to conquer the mighty continent.
14 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
...More like poetry than prose, some of her descriptive passages have to be read more than once, just to let the feelings soak into your system.
Ms Markham's early life is told in a matter-of-fact way, which takes it for granted that, when at 17, your father decides to leave Africa for Peru, you jump on your horse and head North, with no food, one change of underwear, little education, but a deep knowledge of horses and expect to land on your feet. Which is exactly what she does, co-incidentally meeting many yet-to-be-famous people on the way.
Ms Markham's early life is told in a matter-of-fact way, which takes it for granted that, when at 17, your father decides to leave Africa for Peru, you jump on your horse and head North, with no food, one change of underwear, little education, but a deep knowledge of horses and expect to land on your feet. Which is exactly what she does, co-incidentally meeting many yet-to-be-famous people on the way.
Hunter; horse-trainer; aeronaut; most people would be happy to excel in any one of these professions, but Beryl does it all with surpassing ease. Her style is self-effacing and matter-of-fact; you would imagine that being 'moderately eaten' by a lion would warrant more than a couple of paragraphs, but it only gets included here, I suspect, on the strength of Bishon Singh's wonderful rhetoric in describing the event. She also has a knack of striking up instant and longlasting relationships with people from every race, creed and social status - I don't believe she even saw those differences; be he a Murani warrior or a colonial Governor, they both get treated to the same open-minded friendship.
A book to read & read again.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Beryl Markham's memoir neatly sidesteps the conventional issues of romance and marriage, although she had that, to recount the story of a young woman left very much on her own resources and who achieved considerable success. Beryl made her way into horse training and flying, not as a consciously pioneer feminist woman pushing into conventionally male domains but as a woman trying to make her own livelihood by not accepting there was any reason why she shouldn't do the things she enjoyed and was good at. Her love of Africa and her friendships and knowledge built across cultures are what gave Beryl the capability to forge a life of great variety and interest. The culmination of her achievements was her solo flight across the Atlantic from east to west, which gives the book its title. West With the Night has an appealing informality and honesty. Beryl Markham's name is one of which the world should hear more.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A well written story of an amazing life
This is a fast paced story of a face paced life, set against the background of Kenya's colonial times. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Bellamax2
Exquisite
East Africa; lions; elephants; de Havilland aeroplanes; white hunters; race horses ... pink gins at the country club. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Simon Templar
West with the Night
A thoroughly delightful book to read. High standard of english usage and a truly remarkable story of one woman's life in East Africa. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Jiwi
My favourite book of all time
I cannot recommend this book too highly. I put it into my book club and they all raved about it, and it remains our favourite book in a club that meets monthly and has done for 6... Read more
Published 12 months ago by Merry Baskin
West With the Night
A truly amazing book of African exploration and adventure. Beryl Markham may have skipped passed the scandalous affairs that marked her life but she writes beautifully about her... Read more
Published 20 months ago by Ian M. Sheridan
Inspiring
I wanted to read this book because I spent six years in Kenya as a child, which is where Beryl Markham spent most of her life. Read more
Published 21 months ago by J. Weeks
A child's view of Africa and a young woman's dream
The book was well written and really brought Africa [Kenya] to life. Her hunting with the natives is most interesting. Read more
Published 21 months ago by J. P. Stubbs
West with the Night
Hemingways review says it all. Briefly, it's the most under-rated historical review of life and customs, as well as flying, in Africa over a very formative period. Read more
Published on 20 Jun 2009 by Mr. Timothy N. Ashworth
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