Amazon.co.uk Review
This is the sequel to Huxley's wonderful first volume of Kenyan memoirs, The Flame Trees of Thika. Returning to her beloved Africa after the First World War, she, Tilly and Robin set about clearing the overgrown estate and getting it back in working order again. The flame trees have grown wild and the coffee bushes have almost disappeared, so there is much to do. There is a poignancy in the loss of old friends, but a renewed delight in the sights, sounds and smells of the country: the aroma of frangipani trees and dried cowdung, the flat-topped acacias shimmering in the heat of the plains, the herds of lyre-horned impala. Huxley can be achingly romantic and passionate about the things she truly cares about and fears are disappearing: the wildlife, the indigenous peoples, the beauty of Africa itself. Or she can be a fine comic writer, hilariously insouciant about things like an outbreak of bubonic plague on the boat out, for instance, pausing in the Red Sea to dump the corpses overboard. Or the incident with the exploding marmalade in the bathroom. (You'll have to read it for yourself.) All in all, its the same heady mix that made Flame Trees of Thika such a superb book, in turns dazzlingly beautiful and preposterously funny. --Christopher Hart

Synopsis
In this sequel to The Flame Trees of Thika, Huxley takes up her story after the family returns to Kenya after the First World War. Her family and friends, their home and their travels, the glorious wildlife and scenery, all spring to life in the book.'

This has been sitting on various bookshelves for far too many years since I read it many years ago!
Time to let this go on its travels for others to enjoy in the spirit of bookcrossing.
Will be releasing as a RABCK next week and I ask that it continues to travel please.

RELEASE NOTES:

Off on its Bookcrossing travels to Canadian-Babe as a RABCK along with the first volume.

Thanks for the extra books as RABCKS.
Wow!!! I can't believe it, but I now have a nice TBR pile !!!
Don't worry...I try to set out in the wild or as RABCK..in any case I'll do my best for it to travel...

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

It's travelling to Marysgirl..thanks for choosing this book from the Collectorkerri's First Sentence VBB.
I hope you enjoy it.

Arrived today. Thanks for sharing Canadian-Babe!

Mass market paperback, OK condition - yellowed pages, some wear on the cover and I repaired a few pages that were falling out. Finished last night, just in time to join the Non-fiction book box.

My review: I pulled this from a "First sentence" virtual book box. The sentence that caught my fancy was, "Just before she sailed, Tilly got a telegram from Robin saying; 'Please bring shaving brush and windmill.'" This combination of the prosaic and exotic carried through in this story about a place and time gone by. Huxley continues her memoirs started in The Flame Trees of Thika when her family returns to their Kenyan farm after WWI.

Huxley takes the reader on a delightful journey as her family struggles to make the farm profitable, deals with native workers, and socializes with the other white elite; always with an eye to moving on to less settled land or the next ground floor deal in minerals, marmalade, or maize. The author gets her start in writing as a young teen by anonymously submitting polo match coverage to the local newspaper and using the money to buy books on poetry and magic tricks. Funny, poignant, insightful - the reader is swept up in the majesty and beauty of the land and animals, the prevailing attitudes of the white colonists, and the coming of age of a young girl in a wild land. This was a delightful read.

This is going into my Non-fiction Book Box for someone else to enjoy.

2011 THE ULTIMATE CHALLENGE - Read & Release

I wonder if I should seek out Flame Trees before I read this one....

Obtained from the Nonfiction bookbox. Just the kind of book I love.

Off to a new reader!