In the years between the two world wars, Kenya attracted a stream of colonialists from England--Alyse Simpson and her husband among them. Promoted as an exotic paradise, this East African territory turned out to be "the land that never was." On that remote frontier, the Simpsons farmed until lack of capital, a harsh climate, disease-carrying insects, and all manner of misery drove them out. The venture failed, but the book that came out of it succeeds as a valuable corrective to the lingering romantic image of colonial ...
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In the years between the two world wars, Kenya attracted a stream of colonialists from England--Alyse Simpson and her husband among them. Promoted as an exotic paradise, this East African territory turned out to be "the land that never was." On that remote frontier, the Simpsons farmed until lack of capital, a harsh climate, disease-carrying insects, and all manner of misery drove them out. The venture failed, but the book that came out of it succeeds as a valuable corrective to the lingering romantic image of colonial Kenya as a lush playground for tea-drinking aristocrats and big-game hunters. In his foreword, Dane Kennedy compares the pioneering experience in Kenya with that in America.
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Seller's Description:
New. PB, 271pp. New and seemingly unread. From the collection of noted Africana collector Humphrey Winterton, with his oval initialled book-plate. The other side of the coin-the cautionary tale of a young couple of would-be settlers in Kenya in the 1930s, who fail to make their fortune, face numerous disillusions and much hard work and return defeated and broke after six years. First published in 1937. L26.
