This was an intriguing book depicting the early white settlement of Kenya. You can grasp some of the idea and thoughts about how difficult this must have been but it was also interesting to attempt to put yourself into the place of those settling and being settled---not only the indigenous peoples but also the wildlife. At times I felt like some empathy on the part of who/what was being settled was lacking.

I was so excited to read this story, but it was just too dry and uninteresting to keep my attention.
It could have been incredible. Guess it's just me.

I have a hard time writing a review for this one. It is supposed to be a memoir, the author is a grandmother who wants to preserve her paternal and maternal history as a family heirloom for children and children's children, and as such probably should not have been published it and reserved it as a coffee table book at home.

It tells the tale of an ambitious and enterprising Britisher who along with his wife made Kenya his home for 55 years till his death - a home that is described as savage, full of barbaric natives, full of wild animals and poisonous arrows, till the British tamed and refined and opened the land up to new possibilities.

The author describes everyone who came and ruled the ports of Kenya before the British as bad, while to the illiterate, uninformed person such as I whose only experience of such a life has been 'Out of Africa' or Lawrence of Arabia (both as movies, both of which were orientalist and propagandist, though OOA was romantic), the port was most-wanted because of its strategic value and that's why the Chinese, the Arabs, the Persians had wanted it. That's why even the Germans had a stake on the other side. But to make British, who first must have fiercely fought and grabbed and won this area, look like benevolent warriors doing a great service to the locals is a bit of a stretch. Kenya was a colony and there's a reason why the 'British Crown' thought it fit to go there and make a colony of it - it was to exploit land and give it for free to white prospectors making the middle and lower classes of Great Britain rich abroad, overriding the rights of the indigenous population..I doubt the author's great-grandparents or her parents or her children can boast of having so many servants in UK. I doubt her house would have been this huge in UK. I doubt they would have attained so much land in such a short period in UK. I doubt she could have so easily have killed any animal in Europe. This book is from an author born in white privilege, whose right to pillage is ingrained through generations of conquers and consequent development and usurpation of resources. There's a reason why Kenya technically went back to a non-colonial constitutional handover to local blacks (though how free Kenya is, is anybody's guess).

The author writes local tribes and brought-in-from-India-and-other-places labor as good as long as they are the pliable, faithful, servants, but are bad when they revolt and start killing the owners because of an uprising or ask for higher wages or die unnamed deaths due to ill-treatment or sickness at railway lines. The poverty of the locals and the poverty in India and other places that made these people work for the whites is ignored.

But these same British pioneers are responsible for connecting areas through railroads, setting up basic facilities as they existed in Europe (such as a post office, plush houses, country club, administrative network) and showing the world the potential that this land had by delivering and exchanging goods through it. This is why I have a hard time with books of this sort - it's an unpleasant, yet inevitable paradox of growth and development in a foreign country.

I, myself, thought the author's grandparents George and Alice were cool people who made a very good life for themselves and if they lived without scandal, it is because we don't know much about them in history books.

There are no pictures of the farms where coffee was grown. It would have been nice to include a picture of the Resort in place of the author's grandfather's place or the picture of the author with the new owner's of the house where her grandfather lived (and she was raised). There are some great memento images (for e.g. the first tent her grandfather had versus the grand house he built later on; the tall restaurant where entire passageway was built for elephants to pass below; unbuilt railway tracks and hand trolleys used for passage; the picture of her grandparents together when they got old; the almost-majestic photograph of Okinwa, their main servant).

I also feel that the book skips portions: for e.g. we are never told why none of George's 8 siblings never married! or whether any of them ever visited him in Africa or when or how her grandmother Alice died; we are summarily told that her grandfather died bedridden (what killed him?); The grandfather had 2 sons: who did the oldest one marry after the first one ran away? We don't know when or who the author married or how many children she has - till she suddenly plants a chapter of her daughter Julia's death by a buffalo in Kenya where her daughter had choses to settle with her family of husband and 3 kids (she gives no reasons for why her daughter chose to go there, where they lived, what they do). There are no pictures of her or the author with her family either, in Kenya or otherwise.

I don't know how to feel about this book. I am happy that her grandparents had a lush life in an exotic country. I am unhappy it had to be on the bones of the locals and discriminatory rules favoring the 'usurpers / settlers'. I am happy that her grandparents built infrastructure in the town and city and worked hard on their farm and home. I am unhappy with the language the author uses to describe nearly everyone non-white and who wasn't their servant. I am happy local population got jobs. I am unhappy they got exploited and considered disposable. I am happy the author shared pictures of the old frontier so to speak. I am extremely unhappy that she chose to put a painted lion on the cover (as opposed to her grandfather who is supposed to be 'the forgotten pioneer') especially considering how many pictures of dead animals (lions, zebras) are in this book merely as joy killings! (apart from those killed for food).

At the end, we find out that George's family sold off all the land and went back to UK! The land was bought by - as the author writes - an 'African' (translation: black, she doesn't mention whether it was a local rich tribal dude or a foreigner from some other part of Africa). I felt sad about the selling of the land - all that history gone! I went back and sifted through the first pages again and felt even sadder.

This book needs more work, more thoughtfulness and more pictures. Or more work just to be a family heirloom, staying unpublished.

All the best wishes for the author and her family.

I thought this was a well written and utterly fascinating read of the authors family, which the author took from her grandparents diaries, letters and photos, her parents and of course her own memories of growing up there. The story starts with her Grandfather, George Ramsay who left England, to move to Africa in 1899, To work as an accountant for the newly started Uganda railway and later sending for his fiance to join him there.
From living in a tent, to eventually building various homes, this story takes us through the wild life of the pioneers that moved there, and their families who followed and stayed for a country they loved.
From fierce wild animals to diseases, and hostile tribes and Mau Mau rebellion.
This is a book well worth reading if you love to read about Africa and the different people who settled there.
I would like to thank NetGalley and Troubador Publishing Limited for an ARC of this book

From considerable research to include treasured photographs and personal diaries, the author pieced together this heartwarming story that first took root with her grandparents'. Supporting the narrative along the way, a generous amount of photographs was sprinkled throughout. Faces emerged behind the prose adding luster to the storyline.

Leaving England in his wake, twenty-two-year-old George Ramsey made his debut into British East Africa. The year was 1898. He responded to an ad in a British newspaper placed by the government for an accountant to work a two-year stint in Africa. The opportunity sounded exciting and with no further ado he was on his way. This did not fare well with his fiancée, Alice. Tearfully, she told him she'd wait till his two-year contract was up. Time moved ever so slowly.

George had no idea what he was getting himself into. At first, he was not prepared for the hidden dangers that lurked around every bush and stream. Many unsuspecting lives were lost. Countless man-eating lions roamed freely. Extra caution would be necessary in order to survive the fearsome elements. To ensure his safety, learning the language and ways of the local tribes such as the Kikuyu and Maasai were top on the list. Lawlessness ruled the land.

Two years turned into four and Alice was finally able to reunite with her future husband, George. Back in the day as protocol would dictate, shortly after her arrival they were married. A romantic honeymoon had waited them in Nairobi.

At the time, the motorcar has not yet made its entrance into the ever-growing village, soon to be a bustling city. The only form of transportation available was by ox-wagons or zebra, when in Rome...

Working tirelessly, George watched his empire build as he first invested in real estate. Soon he attracted many hungry investors. Eventually his business prospered and split off into many subsidiaries. He was instrumental in seeing the Muthaiga Country Club built to the highest of specifications. It drew all the aristocrats and well-to-do from near and far.

The Ramsay's had two sons. The youngest was destined to become the author's father- Derek. Like his father before him, he fell in love with East Africa. Following in the family's footsteps, author Anthea Ramsay drew her first breath in East Africa and has fond memories of her childhood there as shown from beginning to end of this well-written biography.

My gratitude is sent to NetGalley and Troubador Publishing Limited / Matador for this ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.