Adorable Story #155: Beryl Markham

“The girl can write rings around all of us”

— Ernest Hemingway

Beryl Markham did not wait for permission.

Raised on the wide plains of colonial Kenya, she was fluent in the language of horses and ancient African tribes before she became a bush pilot navigating unmapped African skies, and the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic from east to west.

Her story moves through love, loss and danger, and a late literary resurrection that almost slipped away.

Table of Contents: Early Years / Childhood Accident / Education / Career: on Horseback / Personal Life / Denys / Career: on Airplane / The Messenger / Literary Career: West with the Night / Later Years

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Beryl Markham was born Beryl Clutterbuck on October 26th, 1902, in Ashwell, Leicestershire, England.

Her parents were Charles Baldwin Clutterbuck, a British army officer and horse breeder, and Clara Agnes Clutterbuck (née Alexander).

Beryl had an older brother, Richard (Dickie).

When Beryl was about four years old, her father moved the family to British East Africa (now Kenya), where they settled near Njoro in the Rift Valley and built a farm called Green Hills.

There, her father bred and trained race-horses.

Unfortunately her mother did not like the African bush much and as soon as young Richard was old enough to require formal schooling, Clara took the chance and returned to England with him.

Beryl remained in Africa with her father though: she was old enough to barely understand what was happening and that decision shaped the rest of her life.

With her mother back to England and her father busy running the business, Beryl grew up alone in a world of open plains, horses, and local African communities.

Without anyone hovering over her, she played with local Kipsigis and Nandi children, learned to track and hunt wild animals, and to throw a spear. She became fluent in Swahili and rode horses almost from the moment she could walk.

There is one story that defines her early years more than any other.