Nellie: Letters from Africa

by Elspeth Huxley

Nellie Grant, Elspeth Huxley's mother, emigrated to British East Africa in 1912, in the heyday of the British Empire. Her correspondence, spanning more than 40 years, provides a fascinating record of and insights into the life-style of an unconventional white settler in early British days in Kenya.

Genres: Africa, Nonfiction, Kenya

326 pages, Hardcover

First published March 6, 1980

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

[Fern · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating insight into life in Kenya, what a wonderful character she was with a great sense of humour. I would love to have met her.

[Avary Doubleday · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite books of Kenya in the colonial period. Nellie was a remarkable woman!

[Debi · Rating 1 out of 5]

For myself this book was a definite no. I tried but just could not get into it.
No interest what's so ever.
Others might appreciate this book though and consider it a good book.
The history behind this memoir might have been interesting, but was over-loaded with other
facts that I found extremely boring.
Skimmed most of it just to get to the interesting stuff, so in the end gave up.

[Carole Hazell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I came to this via The Flame Trees of Thika.
And loved reading Nellie's letters: the accounts of her life, over 40 years, in Kenya. Then finally in Portugal.
An excellent resource for anyone interested in this period of history, told with great wit and intelligence.

[R · Rating 5 out of 5]

For those interested in early- to mid-20th century Kenya, this is a fascinating, revealing, charming account - at times glorious, at others horrendously violent - through the prism of the life of Nellie: an intensely likeable, redoubtable, remarkable woman.