Elspeth Huxley: A Biography

by C . S . Nicholls (Author)

• Used

  Hardcover
  2002

  $5.53

  A biography of the renowned writer, broadcaster, conservationist and chronicler of colonial Kenya, Elspeth Huxley, who achieved worldwide fame with her memoir The Flame Trees of Thika (1959). Elspeth married Gervas, a grandson of Thomas Huxley and cousin to Julian and Aldous Huxley, whom she knew well. The author, Christine Nicholls, had access to all her letters and papers, and is familiar with many of the people and places in the book.

• Used

  Paperback
  2003

  $3.21

  A biography of the writer, broadcaster, conservationist and chronicler of colonial Kenya, whose memoir The Flame Trees of Thika (1959) achieved worldwide fame when made into a television drama series in 1981. Colonial Kenya inspired three great writers - Karen Blixen ( Out of Africa ), Beryl Markham ( West with the Night ) and Elspeth Huxley. Huxley's writings (30 books in all: novels, biographies, and political accounts) have great political and social range, encompassing (in her Kenyan books) the exploits of the Happy Valley farmers - made famous by James Fox's book White Mischief , poor white farmers and the lives of Africans alike. After a childhood spent in East Africa and wartime Britain, Elspeth married Gervas, a grandson of Thomas Huxley and cousin to Julian and Aldous Huxley, whom she knew well. She also later got to know Joy Adamson and the Leakeys. She travelled widely with her husband (an executive with the Empire Marketing Board) and wrote while constantly on the move. She worked for the BBC in World War II and became a Kenyan government adviser. In 1938 she bought a farm in Wiltshire, where she died in 1997.The author, Christine Nicholls, has access to all her letters and papers, and is familiar with many of the people and places in the book. Elspeth Huxley was a compelling personality and a brilliant letter-writer, extraordinarily energetic and effective in everything she did.