West with the Night is the story of Beryl Markham--aviator, racehorse trainer, beauty--and her life in the Kenya of the 1920s and '30s.
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Dec 17, 2009
Ian
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This letter from Ernest Hemingway to Maxwell Perkins in 1942 sums up the book better than I ever could:
"Did you read Beryl Markham's book, West with the Night? I knew her fairly well in Africa and never would have suspected that she could and would put pen to paper except to write in her flyer's log book. As it is, she has written so well, and marvelously well, that I was completely ashamed of myself as a writer. I felt that I was simply a carpenter with words, picking up whatev More...
"Did you read Beryl Markham's book, West with the Night? I knew her fairly well in Africa and never would have suspected that she could and would put pen to paper except to write in her flyer's log book. As it is, she has written so well, and marvelously well, that I was completely ashamed of myself as a writer. I felt that I was simply a carpenter with words, picking up whatev More...
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Nov 05, 2011
Sparrow
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Beryl Markham is someone who you would want to meet and study, I think. This story is nuts, but at the same time, it lacks the pull of human relationships that generally carry me through a story. People obviously read for different reasons, but for me it is relationships that pull me through a story – not necessarily romantic relationships, you understand, but the way people interact. Will they be friends? Will they fall in love? Will they betray each other? There is none of that in this b
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Jul 05, 2011
Jeanette
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The order of some of the chapters is somewhat puzzling. I can only guess that she chose what she considered the most memorable events/periods in her life and wrote a chapter about each.
Some of the chapters were way more exciting than others. But overall the writing is quite impressive, considering she wasn't a professional writer. Things were so different in the time she wrote about! Everything was so new----automobiles, airplanes, telephones.
Beryl Markham grew up in Brit More...
Some of the chapters were way more exciting than others. But overall the writing is quite impressive, considering she wasn't a professional writer. Things were so different in the time she wrote about! Everything was so new----automobiles, airplanes, telephones.
Beryl Markham grew up in Brit More...
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Dec 17, 2009
Elizabeth
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The following passage is an example of why I loved this book.
A messenger came from the farm with a story to tell. It was not a story that meant much as stories went in those days. It was about how the war progressed in German East Africa and about a tall young man who was killed in it.
I suppose he was no taller than most who were killed there and no better. It was an ordinary story, but Kibii and I, who knew him well, thought there was no story like it, or one as sad More...
A messenger came from the farm with a story to tell. It was not a story that meant much as stories went in those days. It was about how the war progressed in German East Africa and about a tall young man who was killed in it.
I suppose he was no taller than most who were killed there and no better. It was an ordinary story, but Kibii and I, who knew him well, thought there was no story like it, or one as sad More...
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May 19, 2008
Elizabeth
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Reading Markham is like a breath of fresh air. The world of training horses, Africa and airplanes is so deliciously foreign to me, I could have read 500 more pages. I found the writer to be undeniably feminine yet no-nonsense.
I would recommend this book to all my free spirited friends.
I would recommend this book to all my free spirited friends.
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Jan 28, 2012
Themis-Athena
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[Review also posted on my own website, ThemisAthena.info.]
Taken to Kenya at age three, in 1905, Beryl Markham was raised on a farm by her father and a much-hated governess – her mother soon re-abandoned pioneer life for England. And while other girls were groomed to be ladies of society, she learned to ride and train horses, played with the Nandi boys living on her father's land and went hunting with their fathers. Barely 19, she became a professional racehorse trainer; at age 24 (1926 More...
Taken to Kenya at age three, in 1905, Beryl Markham was raised on a farm by her father and a much-hated governess – her mother soon re-abandoned pioneer life for England. And while other girls were groomed to be ladies of society, she learned to ride and train horses, played with the Nandi boys living on her father's land and went hunting with their fathers. Barely 19, she became a professional racehorse trainer; at age 24 (1926 More...
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Feb 20, 2008
Kenny
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As a pilot and a traveler to Africa myself, I read this book with interest. I was prepared for an exciting travelogue concerning subjects with which I had some commerce. What I was not prepared for was the prose, which flowed like a great river: powerful, subtle, perfectly apt, and remarkably unselfconscious, to wit:
"Africa is never the same to anyone who leaves it and returns again. It is not a land of change, but it is a land of moods and its moods are numberless. It is not fi More...
"Africa is never the same to anyone who leaves it and returns again. It is not a land of change, but it is a land of moods and its moods are numberless. It is not fi More...
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Sep 23, 2007
eleanor
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how is this book such a sleeper?
truly one of the best reads: beautiful, insightful, inspiring, moving... all that you could hope for from a memoir.
highly recommended.
Ernest Hemmingway, the author's friend and admirer, had this to say: "Did you read Beryl Markham's book, West with the Night? I knew her fairly well in Africa and never would have suspected that she could and would put pen to paper except to write in her flyer's log book. As it is, she has written so well, More...
truly one of the best reads: beautiful, insightful, inspiring, moving... all that you could hope for from a memoir.
highly recommended.
Ernest Hemmingway, the author's friend and admirer, had this to say: "Did you read Beryl Markham's book, West with the Night? I knew her fairly well in Africa and never would have suspected that she could and would put pen to paper except to write in her flyer's log book. As it is, she has written so well, More...
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Mar 20, 2008
Ebookwormy
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This book was a good read, and a good companion to Out of Africa. However, two things struck me as strange with this work. #1 I felt much as I did with Out of Africa that the author really wasn't telling me the entire story, and #2, I kept having to remind myself that the main character was a woman as, while eloquently written, it didn't seem I was reading a feminine perspective.
So.... as I did with Out of Africa, I checked out a biography and (thankfully) got a good one, Errol Trze More...
So.... as I did with Out of Africa, I checked out a biography and (thankfully) got a good one, Errol Trze More...
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Mar 20, 2009
Jodi
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It has been years since I read this book, but I remember absolutely adoring it at the time. A lot of that was the energetic writing style, along with the fact of having a strong female character in the book that wasn't easily intimidated.
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Jan 10, 2009
Stephen
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“As the herd [impala, wildebeest, zebra:] moved it became a carpet of rust-brown and grey and dull red. It was not like a herd of cattle or of sheep because it was wild, and it carried with it the stamp of wilderness and the freedom of a land still more a possession of Nature than of men. To see ten thousand animals untamed and not branded with the symbols of human commerce is like scaling an unconquered mountain for the first time, or like finding a forest without roads or footpaths, or the ble
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Dec 03, 2008
Eric_W
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Beryl Markham was an extraordinary lady. She could train race horses to perfection, track lions and elephants, and speak Swahili with the natives. She was the first person to fly the Atlantic solo westbound. She was also an extraordinary writer.
Her autobiography, West With The Night is one of the best books I have listened to in a long time. The cassette version is ably read by Julie Harris. Several of the passages were so striking that we listened to them more than once. I particularl More...
Her autobiography, West With The Night is one of the best books I have listened to in a long time. The cassette version is ably read by Julie Harris. Several of the passages were so striking that we listened to them more than once. I particularl More...
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Nov 15, 2011
Austin
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West With the Night is a memoir of Beryl Markham’s exciting life, and is the only work she ever authored. Set in the early 1900’s, Markham was one of the first women to ever learn to fly a plane, and became the first to perform a solo flight across the Atlantic from England to North America. Raised in British East Africa, Markham tells many stories of her childhood and the experiences she had growing up in Africa. Here it becomes obvious how much she values her birthplace, and as a result I beli
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Sep 22, 2011
Bonnie
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I finished Beryl Markham’s remarkable memoir and immediately had to know more about her. Who was this woman who was described by Ernest Hemingway in this way: “she has written so well, and marvelously well, that I was completely ashamed of myself as a writer….she can write rings around all of us who consider ourselves as writers.” High praise from some one who was not known to think highly of other writers. So why haven’t I ever heard of her? Surprisingly, this was her only literary effort. And
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May 18, 2011
Karen
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Magnificently written and a remarkable adventure. Questions about Markham's authorship are concerning, but putting this issue aside the experience of the book is filled with a unique and crystalline beauty.
This is what Hemingway said:
"Did you read Beryl Markham's book, West with the Night? I knew her fairly well in Africa and never would have suspected that she could and would put pen to paper except to write in her flyer's log book. As it is, she has written so we More...
This is what Hemingway said:
"Did you read Beryl Markham's book, West with the Night? I knew her fairly well in Africa and never would have suspected that she could and would put pen to paper except to write in her flyer's log book. As it is, she has written so we More...
Jul 27, 2010
Rowland
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Every now and then the perfect book opens in the perfect place. I opened this remarkable book while sitting water level in a longboat cruising upriver on the Suneri Tenbeling River in Penang, Malaysia on the only route to Taman Negara, a remote national Park. Markham's memoir of her time spent as a bush pilot in British East Africa (now Kenya) in the early years of this century were all the more vibrant and imaginable under the circumstances. What stories, what personal profiles what incredible
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May 15, 2010
Lucy
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This is the story of an amazing woman. She was the first person to fly across the Atlantic from London to Newfoundland... a much more difficult feat than Lindberg's because she was flying against the prevailing winds. Beryl was raised in Africa during the 20's, long before the wars that completely changed the continent. Her childhood seems to have been one of unfettered freedom. She claims, carrying only a spear, to have gone lion hunting with natives who were equally ill-armed. She also r
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Oct 29, 2009
Well, I don't think I will be as prolific as Laura B. or as gifted a writer as Laura M. - but here goes.
Once in a very long while, you come across a book, that you know will stay in your heart forever. This is one of them. I knew after reading the first two paragraphs that this book was a rare wonderful treat. Like an imported Cadbury chocolate that slowly melts in your mouth, silky and smooth, with a lingering taste that begs for more.
West with the Night - even the title More...
Once in a very long while, you come across a book, that you know will stay in your heart forever. This is one of them. I knew after reading the first two paragraphs that this book was a rare wonderful treat. Like an imported Cadbury chocolate that slowly melts in your mouth, silky and smooth, with a lingering taste that begs for more.
West with the Night - even the title More...
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Oct 17, 2009
Carolyn
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One of the best written books that you can ever hope to read. It is pure poetry. You won't simply read this book, you will feel yourself with the author as a child of the early 1900's, hunting in the jungles of Africa with the Masai. You, as a little girl, will fight off a lion. You will be one of the first woman to learn to fly. You will see Africa as it was in the early 20th century, with its plains full of herds and flocks of the most magnificent and ferocious creatures on earth. You will
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Jun 04, 2009
Tim
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Published originally in 1942, this remarkable memoir of a young English woman naturalized to worlds not hers tells a tale worth rereading. Markham's father brought her as a young child to a farm near Nairobi where he came to raise and race horses. This great love he shared with his daughter who imbibed the breeding of thoroughbreds amid the untamed and often untouched terroritories at her doorstep just at the edge of Western civilization in East Africa. The child's native independence carried
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Mar 28, 2010
Moira
rated it:
Beryl Markham's "West With The Night" deserves to be more widely read. Hemingway called it "bloody wonderful" (he wasn't known for complimenting other writers' work).
Markham writes about her childhood and life in early 20th century East Africa, training horses and flying airplanes. Her writing is hypnotic, poetic and lovely - with a stateliness and dignity sadly gone from today's discourse.
East Africa pulls deeply at one's soul and Markham's writing co More...
Markham writes about her childhood and life in early 20th century East Africa, training horses and flying airplanes. Her writing is hypnotic, poetic and lovely - with a stateliness and dignity sadly gone from today's discourse.
East Africa pulls deeply at one's soul and Markham's writing co More...
Jun 15, 2009
Mike
rated it:
This 1942 memoir recounts the author's adventures growing up in British East Africa — she was attacked by a Lion! — she carried a spear and hunted with the natives! — as well as tales from her later careers in colonial Africa as a horse trainer and then bush pilot. However impressive it is that she, a woman, carried on such extraordinary adventures, our narrator forges her identity from the residue of her actions and not the accident of her birth.
For Markham Africa is primal and unde More...
For Markham Africa is primal and unde More...
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Sep 01, 2011
Beth
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Reading this book is like sitting around a campfire and hearing an elder share a strong version of life upon which I have touched in such smaller degree. How? Well, I rode horses; Beryl trained them for famouse African races. I got a pilot license; Beryl got hers so much earlier in history. She pioneered flying mail and supplies to various outposts and fledgling safari camps. She took sick people in the bush to hospitals. I have been to 4 African countries; Beryl grew up in what is now Ke
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Jul 19, 2010
Debra
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Once I got over the feeling of having accomplished nothing remotely noteworthy in my life, I was able to enjoy the excitement of Beryl Markham's, and her appreciation of it. West with the Night is a beautiful book (regardless of the controversy over who really wrote it). Others have expressed the strength of its language and imagery and insights, and the power of the story filled with Markham's remarkable adventures. It is also a book about friendship and acceptance of things, for good or bad. C
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Dec 12, 2010
Katie
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A gorgeously written memoir containing all of the best elements of poetry - vibrant imagery and metaphor, beautiful prose, a love of language. There is so much skill here and yet it reads effortlessly. The language, completely lacking in self-consciousness, never hijacks the story - they are perfectly matched. While reading, I often kept a pencil in my hand to mark my favorite passages.
Beryl Markham was also an extraordinary woman - a trainer of Thoroughbreds, a pilot. She was born in More...
Beryl Markham was also an extraordinary woman - a trainer of Thoroughbreds, a pilot. She was born in More...
Jan 08, 2009
Susan
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Like the man who “rediscovered” this memoir and was instrumental in having it republished in 1983, I was impressed with the quotation by Hemingway on the cover to the effect that she “can write rings around all of us who consider ourselves as writers”. There’s a breathless quality to the writing: there are delightful and original figures of speech and there’s wisdom gained from a childhood where mentors are as much the elders of the African tribes she grows up with as that of her own father.
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Sep 30, 2011
Warnie B.
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Fantastic, no matter who actually penned it (sounds like there's some debate about that)! This is just a really beautifully written book, and, for the most part, beautifully narrated as well, though not everybody seems to agree on that. I loved the way Markham's stories are told here, how they connect, and how they flow from one topic to the next through the people and animals she knew and loved during her life in Kenya during the early to mid-1900s. I'm a sucker for this sort of romantic aviati
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Apr 23, 2009
Joyce
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This book was published in 1942. The author was born in 1902 in England and her father took her to Africa in 1906. This book was amazing in the way it was written. Just a sample from page 45...."There is no twilight in East Africa. Night tramps on the heels of Day with little gallantry and takes the place she lately held, in severe and humorless silence." WOW. The author, Beryl Markham was raised among Murani children of East Africa. She learned her father's trade, breeding horses, bu
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Mar 13, 2009
Book
rated it:
Although I enjoy Antoine de St. Exupery, nature writing, and books about daring female adventurers who--at nearly every turn--challenge societal expectations and perceptions of what is possible, Beryl Markham's West With the Night somehow flew below my radar. Until recently.
Inspired by St. Expuery (and, a few critics suspect, co-authored or perhaps edited by him), this riveting memoir chronicles Markham's adventures as a bush pilot in Africa in the early 20th century. In graceful la More...
Inspired by St. Expuery (and, a few critics suspect, co-authored or perhaps edited by him), this riveting memoir chronicles Markham's adventures as a bush pilot in Africa in the early 20th century. In graceful la More...
May 24, 2010
Hannah
rated it:
I'm long over due for a re-read of West with the Night.
I bought it, along with Isak Denisen's Out of Africa and much preferred Markham's prose.
She writes with such depth and love of the land. Some of her lines I remember just marveling over how she was able to convey her feelings in one short sentence.
Highly recommended reading.
I bought it, along with Isak Denisen's Out of Africa and much preferred Markham's prose.
She writes with such depth and love of the land. Some of her lines I remember just marveling over how she was able to convey her feelings in one short sentence.
Highly recommended reading.
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