This book was a bit difficult to get through. The author speaks of the relationship between Denys and Karen Blixen using a lot of literary terms, which, if you are unfamiliar with them, can bog the reading down and make it hard to read. I favored the book "Too Close To The Sun" by Sara Wheeler, which is also about Denys. ( )

Denys Finch Hatton was a second son in the English aristocracy who would be all but forgotten were it not for the thirteen years he spent with Karen Blixen inspiring an infatuation that she enshrined in her luminous writing. Had 'Isak Dinesen''s Out of Africa not become a bestseller and then a movie, the man would have been remembered only by his family and friends. It is clear from this biography that he inspired huge affection among those who knew him. The life of the Prince of Wales would not have been entrusted to his care on Kenyan safaris had he not been a good organiser and an effective hunter. For all his merits, however, the first half of this book is hagiographic and only later will any allusions be made to the selfishness and avoidance of commitment that were significant elements of his character. The biographer had no personal knowledge of the man, which would be no impediment had there been more detailed documentation of his life, but most of his friends followed his instructions to destroy his correspondence after reading it. The record is sketchy and the biography leans heavily on Dinesen's authobiographical accounts, which are demonstrably unreliable for details of anything except her emotional state. Even the illustrations are poorly chosen and inadequately titled. Out of ten photographs one is a portrait of a Masai man captioned "Denys admired the courage of the Masai..." and none of them illustrate the observation that "One of his few personal mannerisms was to push his hat towards the back of his head absentmindedly during conversation. This habit is recorded in almost every photograph taken of him, unfailingly his hat is tilted upwards as though he had pushed it back from his brow seconds before the picture was taken." An unreliable narrator can be charming but an unreliable biographer is a confusing waste. ( )

hardback

Kenya