Status Updates From West with the Night

From horses 🐎 she took on wings and learned to fly which brought more passion and adventure into her young life. But I began to suspect she was leaving a lot out. Like relationships. She seemed too interesting and dynamic a person not to have them. A little sleuthing proved the truth of this. Amorous relationships there were in the plenty. So, it seems I’ll need to follow up this wonderful book with a bio.

The book begins with the rescue of a pilot down in the Serengeti, but then time slips back to a blond, lanky, long-legged teen growing up in Africa. At first there is the friendships with the people of the nearby tribes, and the hunting with only a spear, but then it becomes a tale as familiar to me as sunrise and sunset, the love of a girl for her horses, as I see often enough on the farms and ranches around me.

“Did you read Beryl Markham’s book, West With The Night? She has written so well, and marvellously well, that I was completely ashamed of myself as a writer. She can write rings around all of us who consider ourselves as writers … it really is a bloody wonderful book.” Ernest Hemingway

It’s 1935 in East Africa and I am flying through the night with Beryl & I feel bloody marvelous 😅