Talking Location With …. Gabriel Tait: TORONTO
West With The Night
Location(s): Kenya
Genre(s): Autobiography/Memoirs
Era(s): 1920s,
WEST WITH THE NIGHT appeared on 13 bestseller lists on first publication in 1942. It tells the spellbinding story of Beryl Markham — aviator, racehorse trainer, fascinating beauty -and her life in the Kenya of the 1920s and 30s.
Markham was taken to Kenya at the age of four. As an adult she was befriended by Denys Finch-Hatton, the big-game hunter of OUT OF AFRICA fame, who took her flying in his airplane. Thrilled by the experience, Markham went on to become the first woman in Kenya to receive a commercial pilot’s license.
In 1936 she determined to fly solo across the Atlantic — without stopping. When Charles Lindbergh did the same, he had the wind behind him. Markham, by contrast, had a strong headwind against her and a plane that only flew up to 163 mph. On 4 September, she took off … Several days later, she crash-landed in Nova Scotia and became an instant celebrity.
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