Where to Start with Beryl Markham: A Reading Guide
Where to start with Beryl Markham — how to approach West with the Night, her essential memoir of Africa and aviation. A complete reading guide.
By Natalie Osei
Beryl Markham (1902–1986) was the British-born Kenyan aviator, racehorse trainer, and author who grew up in Kenya, became one of the first licensed female commercial pilots in East Africa, and in September 1936 completed the first solo east-to-west Atlantic crossing — flying from Abingdon, England to Nova Scotia in twenty-one hours against prevailing winds. Her memoir West with the Night (1942) — praised by Ernest Hemingway as the best prose writing by any woman he had read — was largely forgotten after its initial publication and rediscovered only when it was reissued in 1983, becoming a bestseller forty years after its first appearance.
Where to Start: West with the Night (1942)
The essential Markham — and one of the most beautifully written memoirs in the English language. The book opens not chronologically but at altitude: Markham alone in a Vega Gull aircraft over the Atlantic at night, three thousand feet up, thinking about what it means to fly.
The memoir circles back to her childhood in Kenya — her father Clutt Markham’s farm in Njoro, her growing up among the Nandi people who taught her to hunt and track, her education in the bush rather than in school, the particular mixture of wildness and structure that colonial Kenya in the early twentieth century produced for white children who paid attention to it. Markham describes the landscape, the animals (the elephant hunts, a near-fatal attack by a lion), the horses she learned to train, with a precision that comes from having learned to see as a child.
The aviation sections are extraordinary: the physics and sensation of bush flying in the 1920s and 1930s, before reliable radio navigation or instrument flying was standard, over terrain that could kill you in twenty ways if you made a forced landing. And finally the Atlantic crossing — the preparation, the takeoff, the long night over the ocean with one engine and no margin for error, the emergency landing in a Nova Scotia bog when fuel ran low.
Hemingway read the book and wrote to his publisher: ‘She has written so well, and marvellously well, that I was completely ashamed of myself as a writer.‘
Why West with the Night Is the Only Place to Begin
For a reader new to Beryl Markham, West with the Night is not merely the best place to begin but essentially the only place, for it is her singular work, a memoir of remarkable beauty and adventure that is among the finest of its kind. West with the Night recounts Markham’s extraordinary life in colonial East Africa, as a horse trainer and a pioneering aviator, and her flying adventures including her solo flight across the Atlantic, all rendered in prose of such beauty that it has been celebrated as a masterpiece. As an entry point, it is the natural and only place to start, for it is Markham’s defining and essentially sole work, the memoir on which her literary reputation rests. It welcomes the newcomer with its adventure, its vivid evocation of Africa, and above all its extraordinary prose, drawing the reader into a remarkable life rendered with remarkable beauty. It is her singular work and the fullest expression of her gifts, so that the new reader encounters Markham’s life and her prose directly. For the newcomer, then, West with the Night is the natural and ideal starting point, the beautiful and adventurous memoir that is Markham’s defining book.
What to Expect as a New Reader
As a new reader, you can expect West with the Night to be a memoir of remarkable beauty and adventure, recounting an extraordinary life in colonial East Africa in prose of exceptional quality. You can expect adventure, for Markham led a remarkable life as a horse trainer and a pioneering aviator in colonial Kenya, and her memoir recounts her flying adventures, including her celebrated solo flight across the Atlantic, along with the dangers and wonders of her life in Africa. You can expect a vivid evocation of Africa, for Markham renders the landscapes, peoples, and wildlife of colonial East Africa with intimacy and power. You can expect, above all, extraordinary prose, for the memoir is celebrated for the beauty of its writing, prose so fine that it has been ranked among the best in its genre and praised by major writers. You can expect a memoir that is as much a work of literary art as a record of adventure. Expect, in short, a memoir of remarkable beauty and adventure, recounting an extraordinary life in Africa in exceptional prose, a beautiful and adventurous introduction to Markham’s singular book.
Going Deeper After Your First Book
Once West with the Night has told you Markham’s story, there is, in a sense, nowhere further to go within her own work, for it is her singular book, the one memoir on which her literary reputation rests, and it stands complete and self-sufficient. The reader who has been captivated by West with the Night and wishes to go deeper might turn to the wider literature of Africa, adventure, and aviation, and to the memoirs and writing of others who shared Markham’s world of colonial East Africa, reading them in the light of the beauty and adventure that her memoir offers. Such reading can enrich and contextualize the world that West with the Night so beautifully renders, offering further perspectives on the time and place of Markham’s extraordinary life. Within Markham’s own work, however, West with the Night is the whole, the single beautiful memoir that is her essential book. Building your reading journey from West with the Night is a matter of carrying its beauty and adventure into the wider literature of Africa and aviation. The reader who begins and ends with West with the Night will have read one of the finest memoirs of adventure ever written, complete in itself.
Reading Beryl Markham
West with the Night is Markham’s only book. It is one of the great prose memoirs of the twentieth century; no preparation is needed and no companion reading is necessary.
For the full Beryl Markham bibliography, reviews, and biography, visit the Beryl Markham author page on Editors Reads.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Where should I start with Beryl Markham?
West with the Night (1942) is the only book — Markham's memoir of her extraordinary life in Kenya and her career as a bush pilot and horse trainer, culminating in her 1936 solo Atlantic crossing from east to west (the more dangerous direction, flying into prevailing winds). One of the most beautifully written memoirs in the English language; Ernest Hemingway wrote that it 'humbled' him. Out of print for decades before being rediscovered in the 1980s.
What is West with the Night about?
West with the Night covers Markham's childhood in Kenya (she was raised by her father on a farm after her mother returned to England), her training of racehorses, her years as one of the first female bush pilots in East Africa, the particular landscape and animal life of Kenya in the early twentieth century, and the society of colonists and Africans she moved through. The memoir culminates in her 1936 transatlantic flight from Abingdon, England to Cape Breton, Nova Scotia — twenty-one hours and twenty-five minutes, the first east-to-west solo crossing, landing in a peat bog short of her intended destination but having completed the flight.
Who wrote West with the Night — was it actually Markham?
Authorship questions have surrounded West with the Night since its rediscovery. Markham's third husband Raoul Schumacher is sometimes credited as the primary author; letters between Markham and her publisher suggest substantial collaboration. The weight of scholarly opinion is that the memoir is primarily Markham's work, possibly with Schumacher's editorial assistance. Hemingway's letter praising it was written when he knew Markham, not Schumacher. The question is unresolved; the book remains one of the most beautiful prose memoirs of the twentieth century regardless.
What should I read after West with the Night?
Readers who love West with the Night often go on to Isak Dinesen's Out of Africa (another memoir of Kenya in the same era, moving in some of the same social circles), Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's Wind, Sand and Stars (French aviation memoir with similar lyrical quality), or Elspeth Huxley's The Flame Trees of Thika (childhood in Kenya). The combination of beautiful prose, colonial Africa, and aviation is relatively rare; these are the natural companions.
