Circling the Sun: A Novel

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Denys advised Beryl, "Sometimes when you're hurting, it helps to throw yourself at something that will take your weight. Beryl Markham was an amazingly independent and progressive woman for her time, yet she continually makes the same mistakes in her relationships with men. At the half way point I hadn't heard another word about flying and began to wonder when we ever would. Meanwhile, providing vital foundational support are the percussion (Soundway alumnus Julien Dyne), vibraphone, acoustic bass and full choir arranged by Matt Hunter.

Pre-war Paris is swapped for early 20th century Kenya, and this time the woman at the centre of the narrative is Beryl Markham – although she starts out as Beryl Clutterbuck, an unlikely name for someone who would grow up to be a true heroine of the age. Karen says, "We're all of us afraid of many things, but if you make yourself smaller or let your fear confine you, then you really aren't your own person at all - are you? We follow her adventures through Kenya as she’s abandoned by her mother, learns how to raise and race horses with her father, then becomes a pilot flying across the Kenyan plains.Paula McLain’s writing is so vivid and cinematic, I felt I was right in the story rather than reading it.

Strangely, the novel does not go into much detail about her flight training or her work as a pilot in Africa. In 1906, when Beryl is only four years old, her family relocates from England to Kenya, which at that time was a British colony. It seems like Mansfield and Beryl, who married after knowing each other for four months, might not have discussed whether they wanted children.The writing from the first sentence describing her plane , the one she flew across the Atlantic , is mesmerizing and then moves to the unbelievable descriptions when she first arrived in Kenya as a little girl and in the days beyond - simply beautiful writing. Before Kenya was Kenya, when it was millions of years old and yet still somehow new, the name belonged only to our most magnificent mountain.