West with the Night

At the age of 18, Beryl Markham, then Clutterbuck, was the first woman in Africa to be granted a racehorse trainer's licence; she was still active as a trainer until her death in 1986. She took up flying in 1931, inventing big game hunting by air, and in September 1936 she made world headlines by becoming the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic from east to west. This, her only book, was first published in 1942, and reveals her life as an innovator and adventurer.

“A poet's feeling for her land, an adventurer's response to life”

'A beautiful and evocative story that deserves to be ranked alongside Karen Blixen's OUT OF AFRICA' - TIME OUT '' - NEW YORK HERALD TRIBUNE

Born in England in 1902, Markham grew up in East Africa. She apprenticed as a trainer and breeder of racehorses and in the 1930s became an African bush pilot. In 1936 she became the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic from east to west. Markham died suddenly in 1986.

Beryl Markham was one of the most extraordinary women of the twentieth century: a pioneering aviator who became the first person to fly solo from England to America; the first woman to obtain a horse-trainer's licence; a beautiful seductress whose conquests included Prince Henry, who was third in line to the throne. ' West with the Night is the sort of book that makes you think human beings can do anything . . . When she was a mere child, she was clawed by a lion. This should have been enough to make anybody timid for life, but not Beryl . . . A jewel of taut writing and thrilling reading' New York Times

WEST WITH THE NIGHT appeared on 13 bestseller lists on first publication in 1942. It tells the spellbinding story of Beryl Markham -- aviator, racehorse trainer, fascinating beauty -and her life in the Kenya of the 1920s and 30s.Markham was taken to Kenya at the age of four. As an adult she was befriended by Denys Finch-Hatton, the big-game hunter of OUT OF AFRICA fame, who took her flying in his airplane. Thrilled by the experience, Markham went on to become the first woman in Kenya to receive a commercial pilot's license.In 1936 she determined to fly solo across the Atlantic -- without stopping. When Charles Lindbergh did the same, he had the wind behind him. Markham, by contrast, had a strong headwind against her and a plane that only flew up to 163 mph. On 4 September, she took off ... Several days later, she crash-landed in Nova Scotia and became an instant celebrity.

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