Circling the Sun by Paula McLain (2015)

Wonderful, wonderful book about Beryl Markham by the same author who wrote Paris Wife about Hemingway's wife Hadley. I read Markham's autobiography West with the Night many years ago and remembered really enjoying it. Now McLain has taken her story and fictionally revealed even more of the life of this amazing woman. Kenya is portrayed beautifully, and I ran up against my old complaint of the British - who the hell did they think they were claiming the rest of the world as theirs. Markham was partially raised by the native Kikuyu people, but I was still left with the feeling, what happened to them? I think I need to read up on Kenyan history.

Markham was the first woman to cross the Atlantic in a plane east to west and the book starts and ends with this event. Beryl was born in England, but soon her family moved to Kenya, where her father started a farm and raised horses, but her mother soon returned to England, leaving young Beryl behind. The Kikuyu stepped in and raised her. Her best friend in childhood was the chief's son, with which she learned the ways of the Kenyan woods and grasslands, including hunting. Her father taught her to work with horses, and she at one point became one of the first women trainers. When drought and debts overwhelmed the farm, Beryl felt she was forced to marry to stay in Kenya, but she was unprepared and the marriage soon fell apart. Her big love was Denys Finch Hatten, but he was more Karen Blixen's than anyone else's. I recognized the name immediately, but took a while to remember she is the author of Out of Africa - a book I read before the movie came out. After her second marriage to Markham dissolves, she turns to flying. As an independent woman, she kept running up against society's expectations in many ways. Amazing woman, who's story was very well told. I'd like to reread West with the Night again.