West with the Night
by: Beryl Markham
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Amazon.com Review:
One of the most beautifully crafted books I have ever read,with some of the most poetic prose passages I could imagine, such asthe following, resonating with a statelyand timeless quality so absent in our modern life:
Product Description:
West with the Night is the story of Beryl Markham--aviator, racehorse trainer, beauty--and her life in the Kenya of the 1920s and '30s.
Regarded by many as one of the best adventure books ever!
One of the most beautifully crafted books I have ever read,with some of the most poetic prose passages I could imagine, such asthe following, resonating with a statelyand timeless quality so absent in our modern life:
There are all kinds of silences and each of them means a differentthing. There is the silence that comes with morning in a forest, andthis is different from the silence of a sleeping city. There issilence after a rainstorm, and before a rainstorm, and these are notthe same. There is the silence of emptiness, the silence of fear, thesilence of doubt. There is a certain silence that can emanate from alifeless object as from a chair lately used, or from a piano with olddust upon its keys, or from anything that has answered to the need ofa man, for pleasure or for work. This kind of silence can speak. Itsvoice may be melancholy, but it is not always so; for the chair mayhave been left by a laughing child or the last notes of the piano mayhave been raucous and gay. Whatever the mood or the circumstance, theessence of its quality may linger in the silence that follows. It is asoundless echo.Born in England in1902, Markham was taken by her father to East Africa in 1906. She spenther childhood playing with native Maruni children and apprenticingwith her father as a trainer and breeder of racehorses. In the 1930s,she became an African bush pilot, and in September 1936, became thefirst person to fly solo across the Atlantic from east to west.
Product Description:
West with the Night is the story of Beryl Markham--aviator, racehorse trainer, beauty--and her life in the Kenya of the 1920s and '30s.
Regarded by many as one of the best adventure books ever!
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Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: 
- Outstanding Classic
Simply a great read on many levels.
Markham captures growing up in Africa early in the 20th century and her adventures as a pioneering pilot. In addition to the remarkable experiences, she brings a wonderful style to her writing.
Her writing style is very understated and yet she captures the intensity of her adventures through her skills as a writer. As a pilot I loved her descriptions of some of her night flights across the empty vastness of Africa.
Highly ... Read More
Rating: - The Real Stuff
If you have any appetite for good story telling, pile your plate high with this one.West with the Night makes most stories about Africa, (and a lot of writers about anywhere) look shallow and colorless by comparison.This complex and detailed account of one woman's life in Africa flows along as perfectly as if it simply happened onto the paper. All the more fascinating because it did happen!Beryl Markham was sneaking off to hunt wild boar in the African bush with a spear at an age when few girls ... Read More
Rating: 
- West With The Night
This book came as a follow-up suggestion to reading FLIGHT OF PASSAGE by Rinker Buck for a book club discussion.Opposite in every way as a coming of age story, yet the love and lore of flying is so intense in each case that they make book end reading a pleasure.
As I read Berl Markham's story I kept hearing Meryl Streep's voice (Out of Africa)in the pace and love of the land of Africa.First hand accounts of adventures within the confines of the jungles and the wide open spaces over the clouds ... Read More
Rating: 
- A Woman Aviator in Early 20th Century Africa
Beryl Markham was a female aviator in Africa in the early 20th century.Her adventures rival those found in any adventure book I've ever read.She flew primarily in Africa and this book contains her memoirs, primarily of her time in Africa.
Markham states that "You can live a lifetime and, at the end of it, know more about other people that you know about yourself" (p.283)She is a very adept observer of other people and her writing demonstrates this quality of hers.
My favorite ... Read More
Rating: - West With the Night is a MUST READ
If you admire the artistic ability to put words together beautifully, you must read this book.And if you ever wanted to know what Africa was like in the 20s and 30s, you must read this book!
- Outstanding ClassicSimply a great read on many levels.
Markham captures growing up in Africa early in the 20th century and her adventures as a pioneering pilot. In addition to the remarkable experiences, she brings a wonderful style to her writing.
Her writing style is very understated and yet she captures the intensity of her adventures through her skills as a writer. As a pilot I loved her descriptions of some of her night flights across the empty vastness of Africa.
Highly ... Read More
- The Real StuffIf you have any appetite for good story telling, pile your plate high with this one.West with the Night makes most stories about Africa, (and a lot of writers about anywhere) look shallow and colorless by comparison.This complex and detailed account of one woman's life in Africa flows along as perfectly as if it simply happened onto the paper. All the more fascinating because it did happen!Beryl Markham was sneaking off to hunt wild boar in the African bush with a spear at an age when few girls ... Read More
- West With The NightThis book came as a follow-up suggestion to reading FLIGHT OF PASSAGE by Rinker Buck for a book club discussion.Opposite in every way as a coming of age story, yet the love and lore of flying is so intense in each case that they make book end reading a pleasure.
As I read Berl Markham's story I kept hearing Meryl Streep's voice (Out of Africa)in the pace and love of the land of Africa.First hand accounts of adventures within the confines of the jungles and the wide open spaces over the clouds ... Read More
- A Woman Aviator in Early 20th Century AfricaBeryl Markham was a female aviator in Africa in the early 20th century.Her adventures rival those found in any adventure book I've ever read.She flew primarily in Africa and this book contains her memoirs, primarily of her time in Africa.
Markham states that "You can live a lifetime and, at the end of it, know more about other people that you know about yourself" (p.283)She is a very adept observer of other people and her writing demonstrates this quality of hers.
My favorite ... Read More
- West With the Night is a MUST READIf you admire the artistic ability to put words together beautifully, you must read this book.And if you ever wanted to know what Africa was like in the 20s and 30s, you must read this book!
