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Real Adriatic Store - The Flame Trees of Thika: Memories of an African Childhood (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics)
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List Price: $15.00
Our Price: $10.20
Your Save: $ 4.80 ( 32% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 828.91209
EAN: 9780141183787
ISBN: 0141183780
Label: Penguin Classics
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 288
Publication Date: 2000-02-01
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Release Date: 2000-01-31
Studio: Penguin Classics
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Editorial Reviews:
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New editions of Elspeth Huxley's stirring account of her childhood in Kenya and her novel of the destructive forces of colonization.
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 jungle, and enduring the rugged realities of the pioneer life.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Flame Trees of Thika
Comment: Having watched the DVDs of The Flame Trees of Thika several times, I was delighted to see the reissue of Elspeth Huxley's book of the same title. This is a unique case of both the book and the movie being about equal. Knowing the story from the movie in no way detracts from reading the book. Huxley's devotion to the land and people of Kenya shines through her descriptions of encounters with both. A semi-biographical account, it not only gives the reader insight into the colonial thinking of the times, but accurately predicts the inevitable conflicts (for example with the Mau Mau) that would later occur. It is a description of what must have been, for Huxley, an idyllic childhood living in the shadow of Mount Kenya, with its exotic animals and her interactions with the local tribes people. A most enjoyable read, this is a cameo of a time long past.
All that is now needed is a re-issue of the sequel : The Mottled Lizard.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Nostalgia for Happy Valley
Comment: This is by now a revered classic of a young girl's childhood in the Kenyan countryside under British rule. One reads this and instantly identifies with the colonial family. It's a kind of Swiss Family Robinson story about that magical time in Kenya and thereabouts before World War I when the world seemed to be at the feet of the British King and all globes glowed pink under the Empire. Were people ever so free and happy as the colonialists in Africa who instantly had countless servants, nearly free land, and the British fleet for protection? This is Out of Africa for the middle class, as opposed to Isak Dinesen's aristocratic take on things. Still, the going was good, as Evelyn Waugh once said. Ms Huxley is a charming writer. Required reading for lovers of things African.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The Flame Trees of Thika: Memories of an African Childhood
Comment: The Flame Trees of Thika is a wonderfully written book giving the reader a glimpse of what it must have been like to grow up in Colonial Africa. It is an experience most of us will only have through reading and can only be compared to what it must have been to be one of the early settlers on the American Frontier.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Love this Author
Comment: I loved this book. It is beautifully written and is a gripping story on growing up in Africa.
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Summary: Truly A Classic
Comment: In 1913, a little English girl named Elspeth relocated with her family from their native country to begin a coffee plantation in the wilds of Kenya. Similar in a way to Laura Ingall Wilder's adventurous and sentimental "take" on what was surely a very difficult experience for her family, Elspeth remembers Kenya as a wonderful place and tells us with lingering excitement of her experiences there in the short time before the First World War changed nearly everything. A delightful memoir that is a pleasure every time it's read.
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