The Splendid Outcast
I swear, my father's bookshelf is like magic sometimes. I can always go over there, and no matter how many times I've previously combed it, a new book will catch my eye and entice me into reading it, and the book is always a treasure.
In this case, I picked up two books by Beryl Markham. I read the introduction to the first one, The Splendid Outcast, and immediately decided to go over to google her. Beryl Markham was apparently quite the exceptional woman. A beautiful, radiant, eccentric, independent being, who became Kenya's first certified horse trainer, had many adventures and stories to tell, piloted many planes, and had a number of tumultuous love affairs, including one with Antoine Saint-Exupery, one of my favorite authors. What can I say? I haven't even cracked open the stories she's written yet, and I already like her! She reminds me a bit of one of my other great sources of adoration and admiration, Isabella Bird, who was also an exceptional lady who traveled and wrote about many places she visited with nothing more than her wits on her side. Bird was a sickly woman though, who didn't seem to have the firey spirits Ms. Markham seemed to have earned her fame for. I'm bringing Splendid Outcast to work with me today, to read during my break. I'm looking forward to it, like a birthday or unwrapping a particularly delicious sweet. Discovering new travel writers, especially the more adventurous kind who can actually write, is always a joy.
In this case, I picked up two books by Beryl Markham. I read the introduction to the first one, The Splendid Outcast, and immediately decided to go over to google her. Beryl Markham was apparently quite the exceptional woman. A beautiful, radiant, eccentric, independent being, who became Kenya's first certified horse trainer, had many adventures and stories to tell, piloted many planes, and had a number of tumultuous love affairs, including one with Antoine Saint-Exupery, one of my favorite authors. What can I say? I haven't even cracked open the stories she's written yet, and I already like her! She reminds me a bit of one of my other great sources of adoration and admiration, Isabella Bird, who was also an exceptional lady who traveled and wrote about many places she visited with nothing more than her wits on her side. Bird was a sickly woman though, who didn't seem to have the firey spirits Ms. Markham seemed to have earned her fame for. I'm bringing Splendid Outcast to work with me today, to read during my break. I'm looking forward to it, like a birthday or unwrapping a particularly delicious sweet. Discovering new travel writers, especially the more adventurous kind who can actually write, is always a joy.