Her father eventually abandoned her, too, when she was sixteen, and fled to Peru after going bankrupt selling his farm and possessions piece by piece. Markham's father was left to care for her, and she quickly became the proverbial 'wild-child.' She learned how to ride a horse before she walked, her first language was Swahili, and she spear hunted with her best friend Kibii the African bush became her playground. Her mother, Clara, found the hard work insufferable and abandoned her family to return to England. Two years later, her father took a chance and moved their family to untouched bush in the Rift Valley, one hundred miles from Nairobi, to farm and train horses. Markham was born in the county of Rutland in Midlands, England, to Charles and Clara Clutterbuck in October of 1902. bloody wonderful work." Markham was one of, if not the first, female bush pilots in Africa, and her memoir details adventures in Kenya with a unique perspective both from the ground and the sky. Friend and fellow author Ernest Hemingway once wrote to his editor Maxwell Perkins asking: "Did you read Beryl Markham's book, West with the Night?. West with the Night is a memoir by British-born author, aviator, and equestrian, Beryl Markham.
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