Beryl Markham (1902-1986) was a British-born Kenyan aviatrix,
adventurer, and racehorse trainer.
Sara Wheeler is the author of, most recently, "The Magnetic North
"and "Access All Areas."
"Did you read Beryl Markham's book, "West with the Night"? I knew
her fairly well in Africa and never would have suspected that she
could and would put pen to paper except to write in her flyer's log
book. As it is, she has written so well, and marvelously well, that
I was completely ashamed of myself as a writer. I felt that I was
simply a carpenter with words, picking up whatever was furnished on
the job and nailing them together and sometimes making an okay pig
pen. But [she] can write rings around all of us who consider
ourselves writers. The only parts of it that I know about
personally, on account of having been there at the time and heard
the other people's stories, are absolutely true . . . I wish you
would get it and read it because it is really a bloody wonderful
book." --Ernest Hemingway
""West with the Night "is the sort of book that makes you think
human beings can do anything . . . When she was a mere child, she
was clawed by a lion. This should have been enough to make anybody
timid for life, but not Beryl . . . A jewel of taut writing and
thrilling reading . . . The girl can write." --John Chamberlain,
"The New York Times"
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