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Title: The Flame Trees of Thika: Memories of an African Childhood (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics)
ISBN: 0141183780
Author:
Elspeth Huxley
Publicate Date: 2000-02-01
Publish: 2000-02-01
List Price: $15.00
Average Customer Rating: 4.5
Format: Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $8.35
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $4.47
Amazon Merchant Price: $10.20
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| Customer Review: |
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1: Flame Trees of Thika
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.
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2: Nostalgia for Happy Valley
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.
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3: The Flame Trees of Thika: Memories of an African Childhood
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.
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4: Love this Author
I loved this book. It is beautifully written and is a gripping story on growing up in Africa.
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5: Truly A Classic
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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