Circling the Sun

Description

As a young girl, Beryl Markham was brought to Kenya from Britain by parents dreaming of a new life. For her mother, the dream quickly turned sour, and she returned home; Beryl was brought up by her father, allowing her first to run wild on their farm, then incarcerating her in the classroom. The scourge of governesses and serial absconder from boarding school, by the age of 16 Beryl had been catapulted into a disastrous marriage. Scandalising high society with her errant behaviour, she left her husband and became the first woman to hold a professional racehorse trainer’s licence. After falling in with the hedonistic and gin-soaked Happy Valley set, Beryl soon became embroiled in a love triangle with the writer Karen Blixen and big game-hunter Denys Finch Hatton. It was this unhappy affair which set tragedy in motion, while awakening Beryl to her truest self, and to her fate: to fly.