Aviatrix Book Club September 2022 - Mary S. Lovell

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On the evening of September 4th, 1936 (the same year as the Bendix Air Race, highlighted in last month’s Aviatrix Book Club discussion book, Fly Girls, by Keith O’Brien), Beryl Markham took off from Abingdon, England to become the first woman to cross the Atlantic solo in an aircraft “the hard way” – from East to West. 

Equestrienne, sailor, pilot, and best-selling author, Mary Lovell, has published ten books, two of which are about pioneering women pilots. Her biography The Sound of Wings: The Life of Amelia Earhart, was the basis for the 2009 movie, Amelia, starring Hilary Swank and Richard Gere. Her book Straight on Till Morning: The Life of Beryl Markham, which is the Aviatrix Book Club discussion book for September 2022, spent twelve weeks on the New York Times best-seller list. Beryl Markham’s memoir, West with the Night, is a gorgeously written account of her childhood in Africa as the daughter of a racehorse trainer who roamed the bush barefoot with a spear in her hand and follows her into adulthood when she became a well-respected racehorse trainer in her own right, and a skilled pioneering pilot flying as a safari spotter in the 1930s. It ends with a gripping account of her record-setting flight. She reveals very little in that book about her human relationships, though. Straight on Till Morning fills in the very public and scandalous gaps, along with some of her more private forays, in addition to clearing up controversy over whether Markham, in fact, penned her own book. Hers is a fascinating story of an adventurous free spirit, which is well-told in great detail, with meticulous attribution by the author, who you can find at her website, www.lovellbiographies.com.

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Blue skies, happy reading, and happy listening!

-Liz Booker