West With The Night

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING MEMOIR

‘A beautiful and evocative story’ TIME OUT

‘[Markham] can write rings around all of us . . . ‘ ERNEST HEMINGWAY

‘A vivacious account of an eccentric life’ DAILY MAIL

West with the Night appeared on thirteen 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 was 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.