Ernest Hemingway, in a letter to Maxwell Perkins "...she has written so well, and marvellously well, that I was completely ashamed of myself as a writer...she can write rings around all of us...I wish you would get it and read it because it is really a bloody wonderful book." --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.
From AudioFile Julie Harris's presentation of Beryl Markham's autobiography is an outstanding success for the audio format. Consider it an essential title for any collection. This is a superb example of the enhancement voice can give to text. The clarity and warmth of Harris's voice perfectly match Markham's exuberance and love of life. Her perfect diction glides smoothly over African names, and she successfully uses dialect and inflection for native characters. The haunting reflections of British East Africa in the '20's and '30's, the airplanes, horses, dogs and wild animals--present an unforgettable portrait enlivened by the brilliant narration. R.F.W. An AUDIOFILE Earphones Award winner (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.
From 500 Great Books by Women; review by Erica Bauermeister West with the Night is an exceptional autobiography filled with a strong spirit, fascinating events, and beautiful words. Beryl Markham was raised by her father on a large farm in British East Africa in the early twentieth century; as a child she preferred spear hunting with the native Muranis to her school lessons. At seventeen, when her father lost their farm and went to Peru, she chose to stay in Africa and began a highly successful career as a race horse trainer. In her twenties she gave up horses and started flying airplanes, becoming the first woman in East Africa to be granted a commercial pilot's license, then the first woman to fly the Atlantic from east to west. Lyrically and philosophically, West With the Night covers each of these parts of her life. Beryl Markham writes hunting stories filled with danger and tension, then turns and discusses the different qualities of silence or what it is like to fly alone over water for forty hours: "Being alone in an aeroplane for even so short a time as a night and a day, irrevocably alone, with nothing to observe but your instruments and your own hands in the semi-darkness, nothing to contemplate but your own small courage....such an experience can be as startling as the first awareness of a stranger walking by your side at night. You are the stranger. " This is the story of an extraordinary woman - and that alone might be enough to recommend it. The fact that it is also extraordinarily well-written makes it a gift. -- For great reviews of books for girls, check out Let's Hear It for the Girls: 375 Great Books for Readers 2-14.--This text refers to the Paperback edition.
