Straight on Till Morning: the Biography of Beryl Markham - Hardcover

Lovell, Mary S.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312010966 ISBN 13: 9780312010966

Publisher: St Martins Pr, 1987

Synopsis

Profiles a remarkable twentieth-century woman who became Africa's first female thoroughbred trainer and its first female bush pilot, her turbulent private life, and her flight--the first of its kind--from England to North America

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Reviews

YA Beryl Markham was born into the upper crust of British society. She grew up in Africa, having all the privileges of her social position while at the same time assimilating the ways of the native bushmen who worked on her horse farm. She became an aviatrix who was a bush pilot to royalty and the first person to fly the Atlantic solo from west to east. All of her successes and failures are chronicled by Mary Lovell, who spent years researching Straight on Till Morning . She has a genuine affection for her subject. This makes fascinating reading about a woman whose feats would be difficult to duplicate. While doing personal interviews with Beryl Markham, Lovell came across several stories by her published in the 1940s. Three of the stories were ghost written by her third husband, Raoul Schumacher. The others were written by Markham, and all of them are based on her personal experiences. They have been compiled in The Splendid Outcast. These two books, plus Markham's West with the Night (North Point Pr, 1983), provide a clear picture of Markham's life in Africa and the multitude of personal experiences she embraced during her lifetime. Anne Paget, Episcopal High School, Bellaire
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The republication of West with the Night in 1983 rekindled interest in Beryl Markham, who wrote it in 1936 after her solo flight across the Atlantic. This is the story of a person who lived intenselyshe died at her Kenya home in 1986early on as a wild child raised by a father whose wife left him in Africa with their daughter when she moved back to England. As a teenager and adult, the pioneer aviator made news. Married three times, divorced for infidelity, she had many lovers, among them: Bror Blixen, her friend Isak (Karen) Dinesen's husband, Karen's lover Denys Finch-Hatton and Prince Henry, brother of King George VI. Finch-Hatton and another intimate, Tom Campbell-Black, taught Markham to fly and, ironically, they were both to die in plane crashes. If Lovell, a British freelance writer, intrudes more than necessary into the story, this is nevertheless an engrossing biography of a legendary beauty and achiever who lived fully her 84 years. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: St Martins Pr
• Publication date: 1987
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0312010966
• ISBN 13: 9780312010966
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 408