The flame trees of Thika : memories of an African childhood

Huxley, Elspeth Joscelin Grant, 1907-19972014

Books, Manuscripts

Find it!
Remove The flame trees of Thika : memories of an African childhood from your current list Save The flame trees of Thika : memories of an African childhood to your current list

Total copies: 10

Available: 10

Availability by location

Place reservation

Summary

Elspeth Huxley set off in an open cart with her parents to travel to Thika in Kenya. As pioneering settlers among the Kikuyu people, they learned about Africa the hard way. This book chronicles Huxley's childhood years in Kenya. |b When Elspeth Huxley's pioneer father buys a remote plot of land in Kenya, the family sets off to discover their new home: five hundred acres of Kenyan scrubland, infested with ticks and white ants, and quavering with heat. What they lack in know-how they make up for in determination: building a grass house, employing local Kikuyu tribe members and painstakingly transforming their patch of wilderness into a working farm. Huxley's unforgettable childhood memoir is a sensitive account of settler life at the turn of the twentieth century and a love song to the harshness and beauty of East Africa.