Too Close To The Sun
The Life and Times of Denys Finch Hatton
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Vintage Publishing
Published:1st Mar '07
£12.99
Available for immediate dispatch.
A brilliant new biography by the acclaimed author of Cherry and Terra Incognita.
Conservationist, scholar, soldier, white hunter and fabled lover - Denys Finch Hatton was an aristocrat of leonine nonchalance. Sara Wheeler reveals the truth behind his love affairs with the glamorous aviatrix Beryl Markham, and - famously - with Karen Blixen, a romance immortalised in her memoir Out of Africa.
Conservationist, scholar, soldier, white hunter and fabled lover - Denys Finch Hatton was an aristocrat of leonine nonchalance. After a dazzling career at Eton and Oxford, he sailed in 1910 for British East Africa - still then the land of the pioneer. Sara Wheeler reveals the truth behind his love affairs with the glamorous aviatrix Beryl Markham, and - famously - with Karen Blixen, a romance immortalised in her memoir Out of Africa.
'No one who ever met him', his Times obituary concluded, 'whether man or woman, old or young, white or black, failed to come under his spell'.
A good story... a fitting memorial * Observer *
A fascinating story of a man trying to outrun the social upheavals of the twentieth century * Herald *
Wheeler has made excellent use of the sources at hand... Moreover, Wheeler writes well, and has a gift - shared by only very few - for pinning down the smells and atmosphere of the African landscape * Literary Review *
She dazzles the reader with an evocation of time and place.. her description of the east Africa Campaign is detailed and enthralling -- Keith Dovkants * Scotsman *
She writes beautifully, with a vivid turn of phrase, a sound grasp of history and an impish humour -- Andrew Lycett * Sunday Times *
ISBN: 9780099450276
Dimensions: 196mm x 123mm x 26mm
Weight: 240g
304 pages