The Merry Hippo

by Elspeth Huxley

1st VG/G.

Genres: Africa, Kenya

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1963

About the author

Elspeth Joscelin Huxley was an English writer, journalist, broadcaster, magistrate, environmentalist, farmer, and government adviser. She wrote over 40 books, including her best-known lyrical books, The Flame Trees of Thika and The Mottled Lizard, based on her youth in a coffee farm in British Kenya. Her husband, Gervas Huxley, was a grandson of Thomas Henry Huxley and a cousin of Aldous Huxley.

Reviews

[Kidlitter · Rating 2 out of 5]

A queasy satire by Huxley, who certainly knew her Africa (oh, the telly series of her epic of an African childhood The Flame Trees of Thika - Hayley Mills! David Robb - BEN CROSS:) Here her particular lens is a wonky, biased one as she attempts to satirizes the efforts of the Connor Commission, headquartered in The Merry Hippo hotel, to help establish the independence of Hapana, an African state teetering on all fronts. For all of Huxley's innate sympathy for Africa, her colonial and biased view undermines the satire. The British and American characters are lampooned well enough, but the African ones deserve better. And then the plot turns murdery, which bogs down both the efforts of the committee and the reader's already strained attentions. If you want another contemporaneous satire of plucky tiny nations versus well-intentioned bungling behemoths, try The Mouse That Roared by Leonard Wibberley, still fresh and funny after all these years. And the film's not bad either!