BERYL MARKHAM

Beryl Markham

Beryl Markham

I am reading West With the Night by Beryl Markham in preparation for a trip to Tanzania, near where she lived and worked for nearly 80 years. What a woman! I was hoping to quote several longer passages from the book but copyright law prevents that for several more decades. Therefore, you’ll just have to obtain your own copy to read a fascinating account of living in the bush among wild animals and local tribesmen; what it was like to be a horsetrainer at age 18; and the details of her time as a bush pilot when there were no runways, no lights below at night for hundreds of miles and no radar. Unlike some current autobiographies, Beryl Markham’s is discreet about the more (ahem) racy parts of her story. Let’s just say that life among the British in Africa was never dull. If you want to read more about that, you’ll have to check that out here in Wikipedia.

Beryl Markham’s attitude toward life, change and moving on is admirable. Here’s one short quotation from this beautiful, thoughtful story: “Life had a different shape; it had new branches and some of the old branches were dead. It had followed the constant pattern of discard and growth that all lives follow. Things had passed, new things had come.”

Comments

comments

About Alexis

Alexis Rankin Popik, author of Kiss Me Over the Garden Gate, is an award-winning short story writer whose work has appeared in The Berkshire Review and Potpourri Magazine. She has penned numerous articles about local history that have been published in Connecticut Explored and the University of Connecticut School of Law and The Hartford Seminary publications. A former union organizer, Popik traveled the country educating shipyard workers about health and safety and founded a labor-management health plan before turning to writing fiction full-time. She lives with her husband in New England.
This entry was posted in Alexis Rankin Popik, author, General and tagged , , . Bookmark the permalink.