West with the Night (Virago Modern Classics)

“West with the Night” is the title of Beryl Markham’s memoirs of her childhood and young adult life (as a racehorse trainer and bush pilot) in what is now Kenya. She was an unconventional woman - adventurous, original and insightful - and a talented writer.A wonder and respect for the landscape and people of Africa comes through in her writing, as well as a healthy disregard for some aspects of civilisation: “the tyranny of clocks." Markham’s approach to animals is unsentimental, and some readers would probably rather skim through some of the sections involving boar and big game hunting.The episodes in this unusual life are recalled in a manner that is by turns gripping and brutal, transporting and descriptive, moving and amusing.I was more interested in the aviation aspect of Markham’s life than the horses, and there were some chapters mid-way where my attention wandered a little, but I’m not a horsey person. I did wonder that there wasn’t more mention of Markham’s family (apart from her father) and husbands, although no doubt this can be read in a biography.This is a beautifully written book, and one I didn’t want to leave - but maybe it’s best left quickly: "I have learned that if you must leave a place that you have lived in and loved and where all your yesteryears are buried deep, leave it any way except a slow way, leave it the fastest way you can. Never turn back and never believe that an hour you remember is a better hour because it is dead. Passed years seem safe ones, vanquished ones, while the future lives in a cloud, formidable from a distance."