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A biography of the renowned writer, broadcaster, conservationist and chronicler of colonial Kenya, Elspeth Huxley, who achieved worldwide fame with her memoir The Flame Trees of Thika (1959). Elspeth married Gervas, a grandson of Thomas Huxley and cousin to Julian and Aldous Huxley, whom she knew well. The author, Christine Nicholls, had access to all her letters and papers, and is familiar with many of the people and places in the book.
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When Elspeth Huxley’s pioneer father buys a remote plot of land in Kenya, the family sets off to discover their new home: five hundred acres of Kenyan scrubland, infested with ticks and white ants, and quavering with heat. What they lack in know-how they make up for in determination: building a grass house, employing local Kikuyu tribe members and painstakingly transforming their patch of wilderness into a working farm. Huxley’s unforgettable childhood memoir is a sensitive account of settler life at the turn of the twentieth century and a love song to the harshness and beauty of East Africa.
In this sequel to The Flame of Thika, Elspeth Huxley takes up her story after the family returns to Kenya after the First World War. Her family and friends, their home and their travels, the glorious wildlife and scenery, described in rich and loving detail, all spring to life in this enchanting book. 'She knows East Africa and she loves it. . . with a critical and understanding sympathy. ' The Times 'What a marvellous writer. . . and what a Kenya it was. ' Financial Times
"In an open cart Elspeth Huxley set off with her parents to travel to Thika in Kenya. As pioneering settlers among the Kikuyu people, they built a house of grass, ate off a damask cloth spread over packing cases and discovered - the hard way - the world of the African."
A biography of the writer, broadcaster, conservationist and chronicler of colonial Kenya, whose memoir The Flame Trees of Thika (1959) achieved worldwide fame when made into a television drama series in 1981. Colonial Kenya inspired three great writers - Karen Blixen (Out of Africa), Beryl Markham (West with the Night) and Elspeth Huxley. Huxley's writings (30 books in all: novels, biographies, and political accounts) have great political and social range, encompassing (in her Kenyan books) the exploits of the Happy Valley farmers - made famous by James Fox's book White Mischief, poor white farmers and the lives of Africans alike.
Elspeth Huxley captivated readers throughout the world with her 'memories of an African childhood' in THE FLAME TREES OF THIKA and THE MOTTLED LIZARD. In this final volume of her trilogy she tells the story of her adult life in Africa, in which the vigorously evoked personalities - from the pioneer Lord Delamere and Baroness Blixen to Jomo Kenyatta - blend with her supurb description of the social, cultural and political upheavals of the time. 'An accomplished story-teller, she weaves anecdotes, character sketches, political history together without losing her thread or the readers momentum. ' SUNDAY TIMES 'She evokes it all lovingly but astringently, especially the glittering, often scandelous life of the young aristocrats who lived in Happy Valley. ' DAILY EXPRESS
Olivia Brandeis, a young anthropologist, could sense that trouble was brewing at Government House in the African colony of Chania. Eventually her suspicions are confirmed when the Governor, Sir Malcolm Macleod, is found strangled at his desk. And when the identity of the murderer is indicated, a terrifying series of vicious events ensues.
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