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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 The Flame Trees of Thika: Memories of an African Childhood 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 The Flame Trees of Thika: Memories of an African Childhood life at the turn of the twentieth century and a love song to the harshness and beauty of East Africa. Elspeth Huxley. Elspeth Huxley was born inthe daughter of Major Josceline Grant of Njoro, Kenya, where she spent most of her childhood. In she joined the Empire Marketing Board as a press officer. She married Gervas Huxley in and travelled widely with him in America, Africa and elsewhere. She dies in She knows East Africa and she loves it - the people, black and white, and the wild beauty of its countryside - with a critical and understanding sympathy. An accomplished story-teller, she weaves anecdotes, character The Flame Trees of Thika: Memories of an African Childhood, political history together without losing her thread or the reader's momentum. Search books and authors. Buy from…. View all online retailers. The extraordinary adventures of a childhood in Africa, recalled in rich and loving detail. Also by Elspeth Huxley. An enchantment and a joy to read Books and Bookmen She knows East Africa and she loves it - the people, black and white, and the wild beauty of its countryside - with a critical and understanding sympathy The Times An accomplished story-teller, she weaves anecdotes, character sketches, political history together without losing her thread or the reader's momentum Sunday Times What a marvellous writer Related titles. Rising Strong. The BFG. Beyond Good And Evil. Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator. Roald DahlQuentin Blake. The Diary of a Young Girl. Ned Kelly. Down Under. Lean In. The Accidental Anthropologist. I Dreamed Of Africa. Up in the Old Hotel. Without Ever Reaching the Summit. The Sun and Her Stars. North Korea Journal. Our top books, exclusive content and competitions. Straight to your inbox. Sign up to our newsletter using your email. Enter your email to sign up. Thank you! Your subscription to Read More was successful. To help us recommend your next book, tell us what you enjoy reading. Add your interests. The Flame Trees of Thika: Memories of an African Childhood by Elspeth Huxley

In an open cart Elspeth Huxley set off with her parents to travel to Thika in Kenya. As pioneering settlers, they built a house of grass, ate off a damask cloth spread over packing cases, and discovered—the hard way—the world of the African. With an extraordinary gift for detail and a keen sense of humor, Huxley recalls her childhood on the small farm at a time when Europeans waged their fortunes on a land that was as harsh as it was beautiful. For a young girl, it was a time of adventure and freedom, and Huxley paints an unforgettable portrait of growing up among the Masai and Kikuyu people, discovering both the beauty and the terrors of the The Flame Trees of Thika: Memories of an African Childhood, and enduring the rugged realities of the pioneer life. Elspeth Huxley was born in and spent most of her childhood in Kenya. She wrote novels, detective fiction, biographies, and travel books. She died in When you buy a book, we donate a book. Sign in. Join Our Authors for Virtual Events. Feb 01, ISBN Add to Cart. Also available from:. Available from:. Paperback —. Also in Classic, 20th-Century, Penguin. Product Details. Inspired by Your Browsing History. Land of a Thousand Hills. Education of a Wandering Man. Falling Leaves. Adeline Yen Mah. The The Flame Trees of Thika: Memories of an African Childhood Path. Raynor Winn. Without Reservations. Alice Steinbach. Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness. Alexandra Fuller. Cathedral of the Wild. Touch the Top of the World. Erik Weihenmayer. Out of Africa. Isak Dinesen. The Sex Lives of Cannibals. Maarten Troost. Dreams in a Time of War. Foreign Correspondence. Geraldine Brooks. Those Wild Wyndhams. Claudia Renton. The Sisters of Sinai. Janet Soskice. Tears of the Desert. Halima Bashir and Damien Lewis. All the Way to the Tigers. Gillian Gill. The Scalpel and the Silver Bear. Little Heathens. Mildred Armstrong Kalish. In the Land of Good Living. Kent Russell. Young Heroes of the Soviet Union. Alex Halberstadt. The Equivalents. Maggie Doherty. Robert Specht. On Gold Mountain. Life Is So Good. Richard Glaubman and George Dawson. Francine Klagsbrun. Sky of Stone. Homer Hickam. Passionate Nomad. Jane Fletcher Geniesse. The Book of Emma Reyes. The Altar of My Soul. Marta Moreno Vega. Related Articles. Looking for More Great Reads? Download Hi Res. LitFlash The eBooks you want at the lowest prices. Read it Forward Read it first. Pass it on! Stay in Touch Sign up. We are experiencing technical difficulties. Please try again later. Become a Member Start earning points for buying books! The Flame Trees of Thika: Memories of an African Childhood - Elspeth Huxley - Google книги

Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. Want to Read saving…. Want to Read Currently Reading Read. Other editions. Enlarge cover. Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Open Preview See a Problem? Details if other :. Thanks for telling us about the problem. Return to Book Page. In an open cart Elspeth Huxley set off with her parents to travel to Thika in Kenya. As pioneering settlers, they built a house of grass, ate off a damask cloth spread over packing cases, and discovered—the hard way—the world of the African. With an extraordinary gift for detail and a keen sense of humor, Huxley recalls her childhood on the small farm at a time when Europe In an open cart Elspeth Huxley set off with her parents to travel to Thika in Kenya. With an extraordinary gift for detail and a keen sense of humor, Huxley recalls her childhood on the small farm at a time when Europeans waged their fortunes on a land that was as harsh as it was beautiful. For a young girl, it was a time of adventure and freedom, and Huxley paints an unforgettable portrait of growing up among the Masai and Kikuyu people, discovering both the beauty and the terrors of the jungle, and enduring the rugged realities of the pioneer life. Get A Copy. Paperbackpages. Published February 1st by Penguin Classics first published More Details Original Title. Elspeth Huxley's Childhood Memoirs 1. Other Editions Friend Reviews. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers The Flame Trees of Thika: Memories of an African Childhood about The Flame Trees of Thikaplease sign up. Be the first to ask a question about The Flame Trees of Thika. Lists with This Book. Community Reviews. Showing Average rating 4. Rating details. More filters. Sort order. Jan 31, Ferris rated it it was amazing. The daughter of two financially strapped, adventurous, and eternally optimistic parents, Elspeth recounts life in Thika in the bush of Kenya, where she spent her youth amongst the Kikuyu and Masai. She lived with nature, with superstitions, with death and love, and certainly writes about it all with great equanimity. She is able to cap "The Flame Trees of Thika: Memories of an African Childhood" by Elspeth Huxley, is an absolutely lovely recollection of childhood as it should be for every child. She The Flame Trees of Thika: Memories of an African Childhood able to capture the way a child hovers around the fringe of certain events, yet seems to understand events with a certain unique wisdom. It is a wonderful book. The writing is excellent, the story actually quite amazing, and the people are fascinating, one and all. Read it! View 1 comment. Great stuff. As others have said, the highlight of the book is the flavor of the East Africa of a century ago: sights, sounds, smells, animals, people. She was a wonderful writer. Not to be missed, if you are interested in East Africa, or this era. The cover photo on the Penguin rep Great stuff. The cover photo on the Penguin reprint, of the author, her Mom, and her pony aroundis a fine preview of her story. The Flame Trees of Thika: Memories of an African Childhood is very nice country indeed. My parents lived in Kenya in the late s. Their house was at ft. They had a view of Kilimanjaro from their front windows, and of Mt. Kenya from the back. This was an old British agricultural research station. She went back to England with her mother in I think or earlyafter the beginning of WW1. She returned with her parents after the War, and left Kenya for good in to go to college in England. She did become a well-regarded novelist. Thika is now an industrial town of abouton the outskirts of Nairobi, served by an 8-lane superhighway, and the rest of the country has changed drastically too. When we were kids we played in a field down the street from our house. If memory serves correctly always a joke when it comes to my memory the space was almost entirely undeveloped, so there was ample space for us to run and play. We rode our bikes down there, we chased butterflies, we caught bugs for science projects; I won't speak for my brothers or the friends I played with, but The Flame Trees of Thika: Memories of an African Childhood also spent time down there letting my imagination go absolutely effing wild. Reading Elspeth Huxley's memoirs of When we were kids we played in a field down the street from our house. Reading Elspeth Huxley's memoirs of growing up in Kenya reminded me of the land at the bottom of Main Street. We certainly had no lions or giant pythons in that field, but I encountered plenty of them in my imagination. The field was our African wilderness, or anything else we wanted it to be. Elspeth's family moved to British East Africa when she was a little girl. The land was almost entirely unsettled when they arrived, and she talks about The Flame Trees of Thika: Memories of an African Childhood from the viewpoint The Flame Trees of Thika: Memories of an African Childhood a child. Certainly she wasn't involved in the more serious, adult subject matters, but she wasn't entirely blind to what was going on around her either. She picked up on quite a bit, the smart little whippersnapper that she was. But she primarily concerned herself with the other aspects of living in Africa. She lived in fear that the wild animals would eat her pet. She wrote about being stuck in a rainstorm that made her wonder if the Kikuyu tribe was right in believing that storms were the product of an angry god. Not unlike Isak Dinesen's Out of Africa and Shadows on the Grassthe best part of this memoir are Elspeth's detail about the land on which she lived. I've never been particularly drawn to Africa I really don't like the heatbut this girl makes me want to go, even though I know Kenya of today would be nothing like the Kenya she knew and experienced. A great read, and I have her second memoir The Mottled Lizard to read when I'm ready, which excites me 'cause I'm a dork like that. Elspeth's family left Kenya during the war, and I'm curious to see what her life was like after the war when she returned to Africa. For myself, I have no desire to return to the bottom of Main Street to see what that field is like now. The Flame Trees of Thika: Memories of an African Childhood there's a Wal-Greens or a Wal-Mart or fifteen gas stations in place of the hills and tress and grass that I remember. I would like to preserve that memory. Sometimes it's just not worth going back. View all 3 comments. Aug 25, Lobstergirl rated it it was ok Shelves: memoirown. I seem to be one of the few readers who didn't love this tale of a young British family trying to start a coffee plantation in British East Africa Kenya in the periodtheir friendships with the other British colonials, and their interactions with the Kikuyu and Masai people who lived nearby, or worked for them. Actually, it completely bored me. There was also something mildly unsettling about the narrator's "voice:" she's writing the memoir as an adult, about 50 years after the event I seem to be one of the few readers who didn't love this tale of a young British family trying to start a coffee plantation in British East Africa Kenya in the periodtheir friendships with the other British colonials, and their interactions with the Kikuyu and Masai people who lived nearby, or worked for them. There was also something mildly unsettling about the narrator's "voice:" she's writing the memoir as an adult, about 50 years after the events she's narrating, which took place when she was a young girl, from The Flame Trees of Thika: Memories of an African Childhood six to eight. There is a sweetness and innocence in the narration, but also a very un-childlike sophistication about the romantic goings-on of adults. In other words, there is no way at age six or eight she would have grasped the subtle sexual tensions between Lettice Palmer and Ian Crawfurd, or comprehended the coded language used by the memoir's characters to discuss the romantic possibilities between these two. There are also long conversations which obviously would not have been remembered so faithfully, unless she was undertaking stenography at age six. So I felt like, as a reader, the authorial wool was being pulled over my eyes. I also read, perhaps on Wikipedia, that some of the characters were composites. Which, you know, is utterly fine unless you're James Frey - go for it. Novelize your memoir. But don't pretend it's some kind of accurate account of people and events when it's a fictionalized montage. It would have been nice to have an author's or editor's note in the edition explaining what was going on, but there wasn't in my Penguin edition. View all 8 comments. Shelves: biography-memoirnonfictionfive-star-nonfictionafrica. Inwhen the author was six years old, she and her mother and father went to British East Africa B.