Elspeth Huxley
Encyclopedia
Elspeth Joscelin Huxley CBE (née Grant; 23 July 1907 – 10 January 1997) was a polymath
, writer
, journalist
, broadcaster
, magistrate
, environmentalist
, farmer, and government advisor. She wrote 30 books; but she is best known for her lyrical books The Flame Trees of Thika and The Mottled Lizard which were based on her experiences growing up in a coffee farm in Colonial
Kenya
. Her husband, Gervas Huxley, was a grandson of Thomas Huxley
and a cousin of Aldous Huxley
.
in what was then British East Africa in 1912, when she was 5 years old, to start a life as coffee farmers and colonial settlers. Flame Trees... explores how unprepared for rustic life the early British settlers really were. Elspeth was educated at a white school in Nairobi
.
She left Africa in 1925, earning a degree in agriculture at Reading University in England and studying at Cornell University
in upstate New York. Elspeth returned to Africa periodically, becoming the Assistant Press Officer to the Empire Marketing Board
in 1929. She married Gervas Huxley, the son of the doctor Henry Huxley (1865–1946) in 1931. They had one son, Charles, who was born in February 1944. She resigned her post in 1932 and traveled widely. During this period, she published her first works including Lord Delamere
and the making of Kenya – a biography of the famous settler. In 1948 The Sorcerer's Apprentice – A Journey through Africa was published.
She was appointed an independent member of the Advisory Commission for the Review of the Constitution of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland
(the Monckton Commission). An advocate of colonialism
early in life, she later called for independence for African countries. In the 1960s, she served as a correspondent for the National Review
magazine.
Huxley's Red Strangers
was republished by Penguin Books in 1999 and by Penguin Classics in 2000; Richard Dawkins
played an important role in getting the book to be republished, and he wrote a preface to the new edition. However, as of 2006, Red Strangers was once again out of print. This work describes life among the Kikuyu of Kenya around the time of arrival of the first European settlers.
There is a biography by Christine S. Nicholls, Elspeth Huxley: A Biography (Harper Collins, 2002). Huxley was a friend of Joy Adamson
, the author of Born Free
, and is mentioned in the biography of Joy and George Adamson
entitled The Great Safari. Elspeth Huxley wrote the foreword to Joy's autobiography The Searching Spirit.
Huxley died in a nursing home at age 89 on 10 January 1997 at Tetbury
in Gloucestershire, England.
Polymath
A polymath is a person whose expertise spans a significant number of different subject areas. In less formal terms, a polymath may simply be someone who is very knowledgeable...
, writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
, journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
, broadcaster
Presenter
A presenter, or host , is a person or organization responsible for running an event. A museum or university, for example, may be the presenter or host of an exhibit. Likewise, a master of ceremonies is a person that hosts or presents a show...
, magistrate
Magistrate
A magistrate is an officer of the state; in modern usage the term usually refers to a judge or prosecutor. This was not always the case; in ancient Rome, a magistratus was one of the highest government officers and possessed both judicial and executive powers. Today, in common law systems, a...
, environmentalist
Environmentalist
An environmentalist broadly supports the goals of the environmental movement, "a political and ethical movement that seeks to improve and protect the quality of the natural environment through changes to environmentally harmful human activities"...
, farmer, and government advisor. She wrote 30 books; but she is best known for her lyrical books The Flame Trees of Thika and The Mottled Lizard which were based on her experiences growing up in a coffee farm in Colonial
Colonialism
Colonialism is the establishment, maintenance, acquisition and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory. It is a process whereby the metropole claims sovereignty over the colony and the social structure, government, and economics of the colony are changed by...
Kenya
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
. Her husband, Gervas Huxley, was a grandson of Thomas Huxley
Thomas Huxley
Thomas Henry Huxley PC FRS was an English biologist, known as "Darwin's Bulldog" for his advocacy of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution....
and a cousin of Aldous Huxley
Aldous Huxley
Aldous Leonard Huxley was an English writer and one of the most prominent members of the famous Huxley family. Best known for his novels including Brave New World and a wide-ranging output of essays, Huxley also edited the magazine Oxford Poetry, and published short stories, poetry, travel...
.
Life and work
Nellie and Major Josceline Grant, Elspeth Grant's parents, arrived in ThikaThika
Thika is an industrial town in Central Province, Kenya, lying on the A2 road 40 km north east of Nairobi, near the confluence of Thika River & Chania River. Thika has a population of 200,000and is growing rapidly, as is the entire greater Nairobi area...
in what was then British East Africa in 1912, when she was 5 years old, to start a life as coffee farmers and colonial settlers. Flame Trees... explores how unprepared for rustic life the early British settlers really were. Elspeth was educated at a white school in Nairobi
Nairobi
Nairobi is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The city and its surrounding area also forms the Nairobi County. The name "Nairobi" comes from the Maasai phrase Enkare Nyirobi, which translates to "the place of cool waters". However, it is popularly known as the "Green City in the Sun" and is...
.
She left Africa in 1925, earning a degree in agriculture at Reading University in England and studying at Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
in upstate New York. Elspeth returned to Africa periodically, becoming the Assistant Press Officer to the Empire Marketing Board
Empire Marketing Board
The Empire Marketing Board was formed in May 1926 by the Colonial Secretary Leo Amery to promote inter-Empire trade and to persuade consumers to 'Buy Empire'...
in 1929. She married Gervas Huxley, the son of the doctor Henry Huxley (1865–1946) in 1931. They had one son, Charles, who was born in February 1944. She resigned her post in 1932 and traveled widely. During this period, she published her first works including Lord Delamere
Hugh Cholmondeley, 3rd Baron Delamere
Hugh Cholmondeley, 3rd Baron Delamere KCMG , styled The Honourable from birth until 1887, was a British peer. He was one of the first and most influential British settlers in Kenya....
and the making of Kenya – a biography of the famous settler. In 1948 The Sorcerer's Apprentice – A Journey through Africa was published.
She was appointed an independent member of the Advisory Commission for the Review of the Constitution of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland
Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland
The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, also known as the Central African Federation , was a semi-independent state in southern Africa that existed from 1953 to the end of 1963, comprising the former self-governing colony of Southern Rhodesia and the British protectorates of Northern Rhodesia,...
(the Monckton Commission). An advocate of colonialism
Colonialism
Colonialism is the establishment, maintenance, acquisition and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory. It is a process whereby the metropole claims sovereignty over the colony and the social structure, government, and economics of the colony are changed by...
early in life, she later called for independence for African countries. In the 1960s, she served as a correspondent for the National Review
National Review (London)
The National Review was founded in 1883 by the English writers Alfred Austin and William Courthope.It was launched as a platform for the views of the British Conservative Party, its masthead incorporating a quotation of the former Conservative Prime Minister, Benjamin Disraeli:Under editor Leopold...
magazine.
Huxley's Red Strangers
Red Strangers
Red Strangers is a 1939 novel by Elspeth Huxley. The story is an account of the arrival and effects of British colonialists, told through the eyes of four generations of Kikuyu tribesmen in Kenya...
was republished by Penguin Books in 1999 and by Penguin Classics in 2000; Richard Dawkins
Richard Dawkins
Clinton Richard Dawkins, FRS, FRSL , known as Richard Dawkins, is a British ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author...
played an important role in getting the book to be republished, and he wrote a preface to the new edition. However, as of 2006, Red Strangers was once again out of print. This work describes life among the Kikuyu of Kenya around the time of arrival of the first European settlers.
There is a biography by Christine S. Nicholls, Elspeth Huxley: A Biography (Harper Collins, 2002). Huxley was a friend of Joy Adamson
Joy Adamson
Joy Adamson was a naturalist, artist, and author best known for her book, Born Free, which describes her experiences raising a lion cub named Elsa...
, the author of Born Free
Born Free
Born Free is a 1966 British drama film starring Virginia McKenna and Bill Travers as Joy and George Adamson, a real-life couple who raised Elsa the Lioness, an orphaned lion cub, to adulthood, and released her into the wilds of Kenya. The movie was produced by Open Road Films Ltd. and Columbia...
, and is mentioned in the biography of Joy and George Adamson
George Adamson
George Adamson , also known as the "Baba ya Simba" , was a British wildlife conservationist and author...
entitled The Great Safari. Elspeth Huxley wrote the foreword to Joy's autobiography The Searching Spirit.
Huxley died in a nursing home at age 89 on 10 January 1997 at Tetbury
Tetbury
Tetbury is a town and civil parish within the Cotswold district of Gloucestershire, England. It lies on the site of an ancient hill fort, on which an Anglo-Saxon monastery was founded, probably by Ine of Wessex, in 681. The population of the parish was 5,250 in the 2001 census.In the Middle Ages,...
in Gloucestershire, England.
Selected works
The following are books by Elspeth Huxley.- White Man's Country: Lord Delamere and the Making of Kenya (1935)
- Murder at Government House (1937)
- Murder on Safari (1938)
- Death of an Aryan [UK]; The African Poison Murders [US] (1939)
- Red StrangersRed StrangersRed Strangers is a 1939 novel by Elspeth Huxley. The story is an account of the arrival and effects of British colonialists, told through the eyes of four generations of Kikuyu tribesmen in Kenya...
(1939) (ISBN 0141188502) - Atlantic Ordeal: The Story of Mary Cornish (1941)
- African Dilemmas (1948)
- Settlers of Kenya (1948)
- The Sorcerer's Apprentice: A Journey Through Africa (1948)
- The Walled City (1948)
- I Don't Mind If I Do (1950)
- A Thing to Love (1954)
- Four Guineas: A Journey Through West Africa (1954)
- No Easy Way: A History of the Kenyan Farmers' Association and UNGA Limited (ca. 1957)
- The Red Rock Wilderness (1957)
- The Flame Trees of Thika: Memories of an African Childhood (1959)
- A New Earth: An Experiment in Colonialism (1960)
- The Mottled Lizard [UK]; On the Edge of the Rift: Memories of Kenya [US] (1962)
- The Merry Hippo [UK]; The Incident at the Merry Hippo [US] (1963)
- A Man from Nowhere (1964)
- Back Street New Worlds: A Look at Immigrants in Britain (1964)
- With Forks and Hope: An African Notebook (1964)
- Brave New Victuals: An Inquiry into Modern Food Production (1965)
- Their Shining Eldorado: A Journey Through Australia (1967)
- Love among the Daughters (1968)
- The Challenge of Africa aka Afrika, een uitdaging (1971)
- The Kingsleys: A Biographical Anthology (1973)
- Livingstone and His African Journeys (1974)
- Florence Nightingale (1975)
- Gallipot Eyes: A Wiltshire Diary (1976)
- Scott of the Antarctic (1978)
- Nellie: Letters from Africa (1980)
- Whipsnade: Captive Breeding for Survival (1981)
- The Prince Buys the Manor (1982)
- Last Days in Eden aka De Laatsten in de Hof van Eden (1984) with Hugo van LawickHugo van LawickHugo Arndt Rodolf, Baron van Lawick , known as Hugo van Lawick, was a Dutch wildlife filmmaker and photographer....
- Out in the Midday Sun: My Kenya (1985)
- Nine Faces of Kenya (1990)
- Peter ScottPeter ScottSir Peter Markham Scott, CH, CBE, DSC and Bar, MID, FRS, FZS, was a British ornithologist, conservationist, painter, naval officer and sportsman....
: Painter and Naturalist (1993) - Mit berühmten Entdeckern auf Abenteuer – Afrika