Characters like Idina Sackville, Lord Errol, Dennys Finch Hatton, Karen Blixen, Beryl Markham or Alice de Janzé wander through the pages of my library again and again, jumping from one volume to another. They witnessed a distant scenario and vibrant.
I've always been attracted to the history of the colonial era in Africa. I've spent entire afternoons reading some of the palpitating lives recounted in books Javier Reverte, or biographies of adventurous women, Seeing all possible films of this exciting era: Out of Africa, White Mischief, Mogambo, The Ghost and the Darkness ( about Tsavo lions devouring)…
Kenya is still full of memories that men and women adventurers left their game with decolonization
Kenya It is a land of explorers and settlers. The country is still full of the memories that these men and women adventurers left their game with decolonization. Authentic English mansions age between Wanjohi and lost valleys around Mount Kenya, about 200 kilometers from Nairobi. Some of these mansions are now museums, other schools, restaurants, others are abandoned and others are still in possession of the descendants of settlers.
There is one of those characters from that era that haunts me lately. Usually it happens sometimes that there are subjects of the story that will appear suddenly and without warning everywhere: Browsing the shelves of the library, when suddenly a book at your feet falls by accident and it is much more interesting than you were looking for, When someone gives you a book that you did not expect or put the telly once a year and you are again with the same character ... For me that character has been Alice Janzé.
Alice, a strange woman who had a lion as a pet, She was mistress of Lord Errol in years 20
This strange woman who had a lion as a pet lived in Kenya for the years beyond 20. He was lover Lord Errol, mysteriously killed in Ngong Road, Nairobi, in January 1941. Lord Errol's murder raised an enormous stir at the time, both Kenya and England, and still it remains unknown. Much has been written and filmed about this event and about the famous and decadent Happy Valley Kenya in the years 20. After the murder of Errol, se procesó a Sir Jock Delves Broughton, husband of the last conquest of the Lord, but he was acquitted for lack of evidence.
A recent biography of Alice de Janzé written by Paul Spicer new theories evidence that it was she who pulled the trigger and murderer Lord Errol at night and solitude of the African road 24 January 1941.
New theories suggest that it was she who pulled the trigger and murderer Lord Errol at night
Alice de Janzé arrived in Kenya 1925, boat from Marseilles to Mombasa, on a trip that lasted more than a month. And in Mombasa, He rode on a train known as The Lunatic Line, ( still active today), a journey of 24 hours that led to Nairobi. A few months later, he bought a farm in the valley Wanjohi, against the Aberdare Mountains. Something hypnotized in the mountains and valleys of Wanjohi, with its soft in the middle strip of Ecuador weather and wanted to stay forever. He only returned to England when circumstances forced him. His life in Kenya was full of passions and misfortunes. He met Lord Errol when this was still married to the exciting Idina Sackville.
He ended his life by shooting himself at his farm, eight months after the death of Lord Errol
At a time when the "Happy Valley" in Kenya where the British used the country as if it were his private garden, animals killed by piece, became rich exporting skins and ivory, gin drank cold in the shade of an acacia, It reveling in the spectacular sunsets and caviar served on silver platters by a black servant with white glove, Alice's life of Janzé was no lack of frills or fancies. He said that only was at peace in Kenya. Yet he ended his life, shooting himself on his farm, eight months after the death of Lord Errol. He is buried there, with his dog, facing the mountain Kipipiri.
Much time has passed since the golden days of the settlers in Kenya, but there still roam the ghosts of these characters who left their souls in the woods and valleys of this fascinating country.
