Circling the Sun

Set in Kenya in the early twentieth century, American author Paula McLain’s historical novel, Circling the Sun (2015), is based on the true story of the young English woman Beryl Markham who became the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean from east to west. A New York Times Best Seller, Circling the Sun received a nomination for Best Historical Fiction from the Goodreads Awards.

In 1906, when Beryl is only four years old, her family relocates from England to Kenya, which at that time was a British colony. Africa makes Beryl's mother miserable, and after only a few years, she moves back to England with Beryl's brother, leaving her daughter and her husband alone. Because of her father's alcoholism, Beryl is mostly left to her own devices. Most of the skills and life lessons she learns are taught to her by her neighbors, native Kipsigis who share the estate with the Markhams. From them, she learns to live as a warrior, training alongside the Kip boys. The one thing her father does teach her, however, is horse training. Beryl quickly becomes an expert at this.

At the age of sixteen, Beryl marries Jock Purves whom she hopes will provide for her financially. Unfortunately, he turns out to be an alcoholic who badly mistreats her. Two years later, she leaves her husband to become a horse trainer. She finds a good deal of success in this field, becoming Kenya's first and only licensed female horse trainer. Around this time, Beryl falls in with a notorious bad crowd known as the Happy Valley, a group of wealthy English-born expatriates who live a hedonistic lifestyle, existing in a drug-induced haze. Many of the members are addicted to morphine or alcohol. Most of their time is spent drinking, taking drugs, hunting, and having sex with one another, including each other's husbands and wives.



Meanwhile, Beryl meets the pilot Denys Finch Hatton. After a sexual encounter that is more than a little predatory on Finch's part, he ignores her affections, causing Beryl to become obsessed with him. He does, however, teach her to fly airplanes. Devastated by unrequited obsession, Beryl engages in a number of poorly-considered and ill-fated love affairs, some of which end in marriage and all of which end in disaster. Nevertheless, she continues to experience a huge amount of professional success as a racehorse trainer. She meets and later marries Mansfield Markham, the son of a wealthy British industrialist. Beryl would remain married to him from 1927 until 1942. She gives birth to a disabled child but finds she cannot care for it. She visits England and leaves the child with Lady Markham, Mansfield's mother.

When she returns to Kenya, Beryl finds a cause worth fighting for in the Kenyan liberation movement. She flies planes as part of their anti-colonial efforts. She also gets work as a bush pilot on safaris, helping big game hunters spot their prey from the air.

Around this time, Beryl learns that Hatton has died in a plane crash. To honor his memory, Beryl decides to undertake the feat of becoming the first person to fly across the Atlantic Ocean from east to west, non-stop, and solo. Several had made the attempt, and all had died trying. Flying from east to west is more difficult than eastward flights because the plane must fly against the wind. This requires more time, more endurance, and better fuel conservation. On September 4, 1936, Beryl takes off from Abingdon, England, flying a single-engine Vera Gull monoplane called The Messenger. Near the end of the twenty-hour flight, ice builds up on the fuel tanks causing the plane to suffer fuel starvation. Beryl is forced to crash land at Baleine Cove on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, Canada. Although she doesn't make it to New York as planned, she still becomes the first person to fly from England to North America non-stop and solo.



Circling the Sun is a rousing adventure and a love story that paints a historical figure in very human brushstrokes.