Circling the Sun

Description

By Paula McLain

Brought to Kenya from England as a child and then abandoned by her mother, Beryl Markham is raised by her father and by the Kipsigis who share his estate. The upbringing makes her bold, fiercely attached to wild things, and unfit for most of what is expected of a woman of her class.

When everything she trusts falls apart she is thrown into a series of disastrous relationships, and makes her own way as a racehorse trainer. Her style attracts the Happy Valley set, the bohemian European expatriates who live by their own rules, and it is the safari hunter Denys Finch Hatton who finally shows her what she wants: to fly.

First published 2015