Straight On Till Morning: The Biography Of Beryl Markham (1987) - Plot & Excerpts
I loved West With the Night that I read several months ago so I was interested in foraging forthe real story behind Beryl Markham’s soloflight west across the Atlantic, her childhoodin Africa and her relationship with several famous men of the early twentieth century. Beryl’s father was a failed (bankrupt) British my officer who fled to British Fast Africa where he realized the potential for profit in supplying wood to the government, which had embarked on an ambitious railroad-building project. Soon he was alarge landowner employing over 1000 Africans.Beryl grew up surrounded by natives; she participatedin their customs, learned their language,practiced their survival techniques, and playedtheir games. In fact, their habits became so ingrainedthat even as an adult she insisted on goingeverywhere barefoot whenever she could.She developed several close friendships with nativechildren who taught her tracking skills and junglelore. She learned to walk in absolute silence,her feet gliding over the leaves of the forest withoutmaking go much as a sound lest she be ridiculedby her companions. Friends remarked shestill walked in this manner sixty years later, "asthough she had wings on her ankles." Surprisingly,she was allowed to participate in hunts. Becauseshe was the European memsahib she couldorder the natives around. Hunting was primarily amale activity, and had she been African she wouldnot have been allowed to participate.This was still wild Africa. It teemed with lionsand other untamed animals. She remained unafraidand was somewhat of a prankster. Whilebarely twelve years old, she and a friend killed adeadly black mamba snake with some sticks, andthen proceeded to parade around holding thesnake aloft on the top of their primitive weapons.Beryl's mother soon returned to England (Berylnever forgave her - in her autobiography shenever once mentions her.)Beryl had an extraordinary affinity for horses.She was the first woman ever to be granted atrainer's license in Kenya. Her horses consistentlywon at the races. In more than one instance shebought and successfully trained reputedly unmanageablehorses: in one case even a killer. Thenatives gave Swahili names to all the Europeans,and Beryl's name was translated as "she who cannotfall off a horse."Her marriages were not as successful. She was very headstrong and her promiscuous behavior was difficult for most of the husbands to tolerate. It was even rumored that she was the mother of Prince Henry's child, heir to the British throne. Lovell presents evidence that Beryl could not have been the mother, but the Queen Mother was so concerned about the possibility of scandal (Beryl had alreadybeen divorced once and was married to someone else while she was fooling around with Henry) that they bought her off with a lifetime annuity that continued to be paid until Beryl's death in 1986.She was an excellent pilot; her solo flight west to North America from England was no society dame's lark. Aside from the length of the flight, she made it in a new type of plane, virtually untested, and against strong headwinds. When she successfully survived a crash-landing in a bog in Newfoundland -- itself no small feat, it would have been a perfect landing had one of the wheels not sunk into themuck, causing the plane to nose forward -- the plane had completely dry fuel tanks. She landed onlyone hundred yards from the edge of the ocean. Interviewed at age eighty-three, she admitted it was probably the only time in her life she was really scared and ever after she hated flying over water.
When re-released in 1983, Beryl Markham’s West With The Night (1942) became an immediate success, perhaps more so than when it was originally released in the long shadow of World War II. Personally, West With The Night’s literary eloquence, discussion of early 20th Century British East Africa, and its insight into Markham’s own remarkable life made it an attractive read, and after doing so I felt compelled to read Markham’s autobiography by Mary S. Lovell. Lovell’s treatment of Markham, written almost exclusively at the end of Markham’s life, does not disappoint. Lovell’s research was exhaustive and included interviews of many of Markham’s contemporaries and of Markham herself. tBeryl Markham was a rare individual, born of well-off parents who were not made for each other. Markham’s father, Charles, was a hard working adventurer bent on achieving financial stability through land development and horseracing in Britain’s African colonies. He failed in the former and while succeeding in the latter it was never enough to achieve the financial status he sought. Charles raised Beryl in what is today Kenya without his wife, who chose civilization over uncertainty. Beryl grew up comfortable in a man’s world, but she never experienced the type of peer relationships that are so important as one grows up. Her formal schooling was limited. Her ability to work as a member of a team was never developed. She was never able to find her niche in the larger society. Consequently, Beryl’s single-minded focus on her own needs became her greatest strength as she became a phenomenal racehorse trainer in her own right, a world famous aviator, and an accomplished writer. It also was her undoing through three disastrous marriages, a continuing series of lovers, and a propensity to make one bad business decision after another. Lovell shows why Markham’s life was like a shooting star. In her youth she traveled in the highest social circles in England and the United States. In 1936 she became the first aviator to fly from England west to North American non-stop and was feted accordingly. When West With The Night came out it was universally acclaimed for its writing and for the life Markham described. But at 40, Markham had reached the apex of her achievements and fame. Her remaining life is best characterized as a continuous slide into permanent economic difficulty, limited success as a horse trainer, and increasingly less contact with the rich and famous. Essentially, Markham became an aging (although still beautiful), poor, spinster with littler to offer.The re-release of West With The Night brought her story to a generation unfamiliar with Markham and a world that would never again support the accomplishments of a lonely, enormously talented, but forever self-isolated genius. None of the negatives, in the end, however, outweighed Markham’s accomplishments. Supremely self-confident in her chosen fields of endeavor and blessed with a fearlessness of calculated risk, Markham accomplished the unthinkable and the improbable. As one famously said of another well-known adventurer, ‘The likes of her we will never see again’. In Markham’s case this is true and Lovell captures why this is so. A ravishing beauty, innately smart, full of herself and afraid of little on this earth, Markham cut a wide social and journalistic swath through her day at a level that is hard for us to imagine today, regardless of how the second half of her life played out.
What do You think about Straight On Till Morning: The Biography Of Beryl Markham (1987)?
Ms Lovell did a great job telling the whole story,separating the myths from legend from rumour.By having access to her files and pictures and her close friends and some not so close,she uncovered all the bits and pieces that made Beryl Markham who she was,the good the bad and the ugly.All in all she created an amazing book that covers her amazing life from birth to her unfortunate death in the hospital. This book fills in the bits that Beryls book "West With The Night" did not.And because this book was so well researched you could jump right into it after reading Beryls book and not miss a step or vice versa. A great,great read.
—Gary
I recommend anyone who contemplates reading this biography to start first on Markham's West with the Night; after reading her own selected portions of her life Lovell's researched biography complemented the autobiography and gave me a well-rounded sense of who Beryl was. (Beryl was an amazing woman who had a unique childhood, a gift with horses and was a true adventuress.) Lovell's biography also provided all the background gossip, sorted fact from fiction, and showed a colonial Africa through change and without stereotype. I read Elspeth Huxley's books of her growing up in Kenya decades ago and now want to reread them.
—Heather Barrett
Loved Beryls memoir West with the Night and was happy to discover this excellent biography that told the story of her whole life. The books title comes from the novel Peter Pan which the author quotes on the front piece: "How do you get to Neverland? Wendy asked. 'Second star to the right, and straight on till morning." Seems a fitting quote for this fiercely independent, daring and zestful living woman. Read it in the early 1990's after reading Out of Africa and interested in learning more about that period of time.
—Renata
