Recommendations from our site
“Karen Blixen (pen name Isak Dinesen) never did win the Nobel prize for literature, which is a pity as I do think this, her memoir of living in British East Africa, is one of the most beautifully written books of all time. I am thrilled it got turned into a movie with Robert Redford and Meryl Streep because it made her more famous, and was the way I, personally, got introduced to her. I was 15 at the time, and had always ignored the green-and-white book sitting on my parents’ shelf but, afterwards, I was inspired. When I left high school in 1988, I went to Kenya for a few days by myself and then spent the year teaching in Zimbabwe.” Read more...
Sophie Roell, Journalist
“I found the book itself inspirational, and I found the fact that a woman had written it doubly inspirational… I think it’s really one of the most lovely declarations of love for Africa ever written. I think if you go to Africa, there is something about it that really captures you, there is something very addictive about it, there is something so romantic about it.” Read more...
Helena Frith Powell, Journalist
“Out of Africa is an incredible introduction to Africa, and I read the book when I needed it most. My husband was posted to Ethiopia quite soon after we were married, and I didn’t know anything at all about the continent, which made me very apprehensive. He travelled there ahead of me and somehow found Blixen’s autobiography. He rang me and said that there was this book that I must read which seemed to sum the whole place up. When I got to Addis I was able to relate to the country more easily because I’d read it. Blixen writes about a different place (Kenya) and in a different era but the picture it paints still has resonance.” Read more...
The best books on The Diplomat’s Wife
Brigid Keenan, Journalist
