Circling The Sun

MacLain, Paula

£8.99

As a young girl, Beryl Markham was brought to Kenya from Britain by parents dreaming of a new life. For her mother, the dream quickly turned sour, and she returned home; Beryl was brought up by her father, allowing her first to run wild on their farm, then incarcerating her in the classroom. The scourge of governesses and serial absconder from boarding school, by the age of 16 Beryl had been catapulted into a disastrous marriage. Scandalising high society with her errant behaviour, she left her husband and became the first woman to hold a professional racehorse trainer’s licence. After falling in with the hedonistic and gin-soaked Happy Valley set, Beryl soon became embroiled in a love triangle with the writer Karen Blixen and big game-hunter Denys Finch Hatton. It was this unhappy affair which set tragedy in motion, while awakening Beryl to her truest self, and to her fate: to fly.

Publish Date: 14/07/2016

Description

A RICHARD & JUDY BOOK CLUB PICK

‘Thrilling…sun-soaked, gin-fuelled…A totally absorbing and compelling read.’ Richard & Judy

The author of The Paris Wife takes us to the heart of another true story: set in 1920s colonial Kenya, Circling the Sun is about an unforgettable woman who lives by nobody’s rules but her own.

She was a daughter of Edwardian England, transplanted to Kenya as a young girl by parents who dreamed of life on an African farm. But by the time Beryl Markham was sixteen, that dream had fallen apart. Catapulted into a disastrous marriage, she emerged from its wreckage with one idea: to take charge of her own destiny.

Circling the Sun takes us from the brittle glamour of the 1920s Happy Valley set, fuelled by gin and adultery, to the loneliness of life as a scandalous divorcee; from the spectacular beauty of the Kenyan landscape to the manicured lawns of Nairobi’s Muthaiga Club. Dazzlingly beautiful, brave, passionate and reckless, Beryl is an unforgettable heroine, whose tragic loss in love compels her to pursue her own dream – of flight, and freedom.

Additional information

Weight 340 g
Dimensions 195 × 130 × 29 mm
Author

Publisher

Imprint

Cover

Paperback

Pages

420

Language

English

Edition

1st paperback ed

Dewey

813.6 (edition:23)

Readership

General – Trade / Code: K