Read Online Straight on Till Morning by Mary S. Lovell - Free Book Online

and busy up-country practice with offices in Nanyuki. 9 When her hosts discovered that Beryl could not only type, but type extremely well, an obvious solution to some of Beryl’s problems occurred to them. Beryl became legal secretary in Charles’s law practice, and she was thus able to earn some pocket money. ‘Her typing was fast and accurate and her spelling impeccable,’ Doreen stated, adding that she had always treated the gossip of Beryl’s rumoured illiteracy as utter nonsense, and adopting a course of ‘never apologize and never explain’, along with Beryl. The work also gave Beryl something with which to occupy her mind, but her health continued to deteriorate.
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    The ‘famous’ picture of Beryl Markham. (B.M.E)
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    Beryl’s Vega Gull The Messenger outside the Percival Aircraft factory’s hangar at Gravesend, Kent, August, 1936. (B.M.E)
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    Captioned ‘The Great Adventure’, this Daily Mirror front page photo showed The Messenger over Abingdon shortly after take-off. (British Library)
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    Arrival in Nova Scotia: The Messenger embedded in a Balleine Cove peat bog. Beryl sustained only minor injuries and was able to continue her journey successfully in another aircraft. (B.M.E)
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    Beryl’s own caption reads: ‘At Louisburg, Nova Scotia a few hours after I landed.’ (B.M.E)
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    Beryl’s triumphant wave on reaching New York. (B.M.E)
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    Beryl’s own caption reads: ‘Interview with the Mayor in New York.’ Fiorella La Guardia offers a civic greeting. (B.M.E)
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    Beryl waves from the deck of The Queen Mary as she returns to England, September 1936. (Photosource)
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    The damaged Messenger being uploaded from the S. S. Coldharbour at London Docks. (B.M.E)
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    Beryl wearing her famous white flying suit, shortly before her transatlantic flight. (Bettman)
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    With Douglas Fairbanks Jr. on location for Safari, Hollywood, 1939. (B.M.E)
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    Raoul Shumacher, Beryl’s third husband, taken in New Mexico, 1943. (British Library)
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    Beryl with her dog Rosie in the avocado orchard at the Santa Barbara ranch, 1946. (V. Markham)
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    Beryl with her own horse, Blue Brook, circa 1960. (B.M.E.)
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    Beryl with winning owner Nairobi, 1977. (B.M.E.)
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    Beryl’s house at Naivasha circa 1963. (B.M.E.)
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    With George Guterkunst during the filming of World without Walls, the televised documentary of her life. (G. Guterkunst)
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    Cover of Beryl’s copy of the first edition of West with the Night .
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    As the condition (fibroid tumours in the womb) worsened, Beryl became increasingly perverse and her temper extremely volatile, probably because of a hormonal imbalance accentuated by her approaching menopause. ‘At times she seemed almost mentally out of control, banging doors, and breaking things,’ Doreen recalled. ‘Sometimes when she sat and talked after dinner her voice would go up a tone and she would rave at us for hours about nothing in particular.’ On one occasion after the Bathurst Normans had retired to bed, they heard a noise, and when Charles got up to investigate he found that Beryl had broken the sitting-room window and wrenched it off its hinges in order to get in to see them; she was incredibly strong for a woman despite her illness. On another occasion, after a row over nothing in particular, she struck Charles, but he promptly hit her back, telling her she would have to leave the farm if her behaviour did not improve. She threatened suicide and once ran away without telling the Bathurst Normans where she had gone. She eventually turned up at a neighbour’s house where to the astonishment of her hosts she treated them to a tirade lasting several hours. It was all very disruptive and worrying for the Bathurst Normans, who had more or less adopted Beryl and were extremely concerned for her.
    Eventually Doreen was able to persuade Beryl to see a