--- product_id: 1375189 title: "West with the Night: A Memoir" price: "291 kr" currency: NOK in_stock: true reviews_count: 13 url: https://www.desertcart.no/products/1375189-west-with-the-night-a-memoir store_origin: NO region: Norway --- # West with the Night: A Memoir **Price:** 291 kr **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** West with the Night: A Memoir - **How much does it cost?** 291 kr with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.no](https://www.desertcart.no/products/1375189-west-with-the-night-a-memoir) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description A new edition of a great, underappreciated classic of our time Beryl Markham's West with the Night is a true classic, a book that deserves the same acclaim and readership as the work of her contemporaries Ernest Hemingway, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, and Isak Dinesen. If the first responsibility of a memoirist is to lead a life worth writing about, Markham succeeded beyond all measure. Born Beryl Clutterbuck in the middle of England, she and her father moved to Kenya when she was a girl, and she grew up with a zebra for a pet; horses for friends; baboons, lions, and gazelles for neighbors. She made money by scouting elephants from a tiny plane. And she would spend most of the rest of her life in East Africa as an adventurer, a racehorse trainer, and an aviatrix―she became the first person to fly nonstop from Europe to America, the first woman to fly solo east to west across the Atlantic. Hers was indisputably a life full of adventure and beauty. And then there is the writing. When Hemingway read Markham's book, he wrote to his editor, Maxwell Perkins: "She has written so well, and marvelously well, that I was completely ashamed of myself as a writer . . . [She] can write rings around all of us who consider ourselves as writers . . . It is really a bloody wonderful book." With a new introduction by Sara Wheeler―one of Markham's few legitimate literary heirs― West with the Night should once again take its place as one of the world's great adventure stories. Review: Great read - I bought this after reading somewhere that Ernest Hemingway said he should give up writing because this woman was better! After reading the book, I'm not sure I would go *that* far but the writing is evocative and thought-provoking. Her ability to male ypu feel the environment is absolutely amazing. Review: Exceptional Story of Life in Africa and the Early Days of Aviation - One of the best books I’ve ever read! I had never heard of Beryl Markham and decided to read it after a good friend wrote a review. The fact that the central character was a female aviator who went on to complete an East-west Atlantic flight caught my attention. But that flight is not described until the end of the book. What awaits the reader is an exceptional description of life in Africa by the author and how that played a huge role in her developing the skills to learn everything from hunting game with the natives, training race horses and then learning to fly. Her writing skills are hypnotizing in a sense - the words flow seamlessly in her descriptions of everything: animals, people, terrain, weather, the sky, etc. It was the type of writing that is so rich that it almost leaves the reader breathless. I do not do well with audio books but I’m pretty sure I would enjoy this book in audio just to hear a good reader (preferably with an English accent) read all the beautiful sections of prose contained therein. Another interesting aspect of the author’s life is the fact that this is not written from a feminist point of view which I really appreciated. It is written from the point of view that someone who happens to be female was exposed to many opportunities to learn many different things that was usually only available to men. Her mother had left her father when they came to Africa but the author stayed with her father. So, having an eager and curious disposition, Markham learned under her father’s instruction but also learned much from her father’s associates and the native Africans. I can’t recommend this book enough! ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | #20,721 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #2 in Aviation & Nautical Biographies #4 in Kenya Travel Guides #4 in Air Travel Reference (Books) | | Customer Reviews | 4.5 out of 5 stars 8,505 Reviews | ## Images ![West with the Night: A Memoir - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81L3b63ywTL.jpg) ## Available Options This product comes in different **Format** options. ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Great read *by M***A on July 23, 2026* I bought this after reading somewhere that Ernest Hemingway said he should give up writing because this woman was better! After reading the book, I'm not sure I would go *that* far but the writing is evocative and thought-provoking. Her ability to male ypu feel the environment is absolutely amazing. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Exceptional Story of Life in Africa and the Early Days of Aviation *by P***E on January 18, 2023* One of the best books I’ve ever read! I had never heard of Beryl Markham and decided to read it after a good friend wrote a review. The fact that the central character was a female aviator who went on to complete an East-west Atlantic flight caught my attention. But that flight is not described until the end of the book. What awaits the reader is an exceptional description of life in Africa by the author and how that played a huge role in her developing the skills to learn everything from hunting game with the natives, training race horses and then learning to fly. Her writing skills are hypnotizing in a sense - the words flow seamlessly in her descriptions of everything: animals, people, terrain, weather, the sky, etc. It was the type of writing that is so rich that it almost leaves the reader breathless. I do not do well with audio books but I’m pretty sure I would enjoy this book in audio just to hear a good reader (preferably with an English accent) read all the beautiful sections of prose contained therein. Another interesting aspect of the author’s life is the fact that this is not written from a feminist point of view which I really appreciated. It is written from the point of view that someone who happens to be female was exposed to many opportunities to learn many different things that was usually only available to men. Her mother had left her father when they came to Africa but the author stayed with her father. So, having an eager and curious disposition, Markham learned under her father’s instruction but also learned much from her father’s associates and the native Africans. I can’t recommend this book enough! ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Recollections from an Adventurous Spirit *by A***R on July 17, 2017* West with the Night sprang from the journals and recollections of Beryl Markham, a woman who, in any era, stands apart. Markham was born in England in 1902. Four years later her father took her to live with him in Kenya, and her love affair with that country began. With Africa as her surrogate mother, and Nandi tribesmen as her childhood companions, she grew confident and self-sufficient. She went on to make her mark as an accomplished racehorse trainer, aviatrix, and author. Another child might have chosen a more traditional way of life within the confines of her father’s farm; but Markham gravitated to the native people, whose wisdom she respected and who taught her about the land, the wildlife, and tribal legends. Her affinity with untamed Africa grew more poignant with time. “To see ten thousand animals untamed and not branded with the symbols of human commerce is like scaling an unconquered mountain for the first time, or like finding a forest without roads or footpaths, or the blemish of an axe. You know then what you had always been told—that the world once lived and grew without adding machines and newsprint and brick-walled streets and the tyranny of clocks.” After an impressive stint as a race horse trainer, Markham shifted her focus to aviation. “I yielded to curiosity; I asked questions. Something about that irreverent contrivance of fabric and wires and noise, blustering through the chaste arena of the night, had stirred the course of my thoughts to restless eddies.” She made a respectable living as a bush pilot, scouting elephants from the sky for the legendary “white hunters” of that era: Denis Fynch-Hatton and Baron von Blixen. Her vocation, especially for a woman on her own in the wilds of Africa, was a rarity in the early 1930’s. It was her love of flying, with its adrenaline promise of escape, that led her to chart new territory in 1936. She would be the first to fly solo from England to America. With a fellow pilot's encouragement, and a custom-made plane, she spent months preparing for the flight. Hours before her scheduled departure, the weather reports were troubling. Despite the risks, she had made the commitment and captured the world’s attention. Determined to see things through, she reasoned that, “…by his nature a flyer must fly. I could compute that I had flown a quarter of a million miles; and I could foresee that, so long as I had a plane and the sky was there, I should go on flying more miles.” We share in her once-in-a-lifetime moment at lift off: “…there had been a moment when Time stopped—and Distance too. It was the moment I lifted the blue-and-silver Gull from the aerodrome, the moment the photographers aimed their cameras, the moment I felt the craft refuse its burden and strain toward the earth in sullen rebellion, only to listen at last to the persuasion of stick and elevators, the dogmatic argument of blueprints that said she had to fly because the figures proved it.” As she reached her target altitude and leveled out, the plane required her response: “where are we bound?” The question frightened her as she was struck by the reality of flying through the darkness across 2,000 miles of ocean. “We are flying west with the night.” Markham brings readers along for the 20-hour flight of their lives, creating space for us inside the Gull’s tiny cabin where Petrol tanks surround her. There was no radio, no life preserver. Essentials were sacrificed in favor of fuel. She had to subvert her natural instincts to her pilot’s training in order to complete her run across the Atlantic. Had she failed, she would have crashed into the sea, and her journey might never have been ours to share. While some readers may be left wanting personal details about Markham's mother and the men in her life, I think many others will share my opinion that the recollections she chose to share are not only deftly, poetically written, but also a deeply personal reflection of her soul. I wouldn't be surprised if this book inspires more films, and continues to rise like a phoenix from dusty book shelves and archived e-files every so many years. --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.no/products/1375189-west-with-the-night-a-memoir](https://www.desertcart.no/products/1375189-west-with-the-night-a-memoir) --- *Product available on Desertcart Norway* *Store origin: NO* *Last updated: 2026-09-17*