BOOK REVIEW: ‘Circling the Sun’ by Paula McLain

Paula McLain first found acclaim with her wonderful debut novel The Paris Wife; a moving and beautifully crafted portrait of Ernest Hemingway’s first wife Hadley Richardson and the years she spent living with Hemingway in Paris. McLain now turns her attention to another tenacious female from history where in her latest work, Circling the Sun, she illuminates the ambitious and fascinating life of Beryl Markham, a woman most famously known for being the first female to fly solo, east to west, across the Atlantic.

Markham was raised in Kenya by her father (her mother and brother returned to England when Markham was just five years old) where she enjoyed a freedom unknown to most young girls her age. Left to her own devices, Markham’s early days were spent amongst the local tribe where she could be found barefoot, racing through the grassy plains of her father’s horse farm with her friend Arup Ruta; a man whose support, strength and friendship Markham would come to depend on throughout her life.

With her father a successful and well known horse trainer Markham soon learned the secrets of raising and training winning horses. It was this love and knowledge that spurred Markham to apply for her own trainer’s license, something unheard of for a woman to do at the time and making Markham the only woman to possess such a licence in Kenya, if not the world. Through passion, dedication and hard work Markham soon excelled in her field becoming a well-known and admired trainer despite the injustices she faced that came as a woman working in a male dominated field.

As Markham’s knowledge of the equine world began to blossom so did her foray into womanhood when at the tender age of sixteen Markham married a local farmer, Jock Purves; a marriage Markham entered with trepidation and uncertainty that was soon characterised by violence, affairs and lashings of alcohol. Throughout her marriage Markham was linked to various men with the two most notable being Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester and Denys Finch Hatton a man who Markham loved passionately and deeply. Markham was not unusual in her numerous affairs; the twisted hedonistic love affairs of the colonial set, where swapping husband’s and lovers was de-rigueur, meant that Markham’s affair was not only common knowledge but that she often had to share her lovers with other women.

Once divorced from Purves, Markham eventually married Mansfield Markham, a union that was based on mutual understanding and friendship rather than the white hot passion she had experienced with Finch Hatton. It was from this marriage Markham’s only child was born; a sickly boy named Gervase who was born prematurely and deformed.

Always one to test the boundaries and take risks Markham, soon became fascinated by aviation, something that was still relatively new and dangerous in the 1930s. With the same determination she employed in obtaining her trainer’s license Markham once more battled against sexism and instead set her mind and heart in learning to fly and finally obtain her pilots license.

In flying Markham found abandon high above the clouds; away from the prying eyes and the cloying and suffocating relationships of the colony Markham was finally free. In typical fashion of a woman who refused to conform and who craved adventure Markham next set her sights of becoming the first woman to fly solo from east to west across the Atlantic; a nerve wracking and exhausting twenty hour flight, of which the dangers were many.

McLain takes on this journey, both high above the clouds and below, with a knack for storytelling like no other. She exposes Markham’s vulnerabilities and triumphs with compassion and ease. McLain evokes Markham as  flawed yet intensely likeable and human and under her prose she expertly blossoms into a well-rounded and believable character as do the host of others who wander in and out the pages, leaving lingering scents like the exotic African blooms that McLain often describes.

The novel is littered with beautiful descriptions of colonial Kenya; a land inhabited with exotic beasts – both in the animals that roam the plains and the ones who spent their days propped up against the bar of the Muthaiga Country Club. With rich descriptions, flawlessly created characters and a story that is both breath taking and inspiring McLain evokes wonderful scenes of a bygone era that remain at the periphery of one’s mind long after the novel has been finished.

Circling the Sun is a beautiful piece of work that does justice to the life and legacy of an extraordinary woman, one who lived in a time of exotic hedonism and excess; someone who was strong, self-reliant and craved adventure. As expected from a woman who lived such a colourful life, McLain’s novel is a wonderful and exhilarating read and one that has the reader gripped until the very last word.