Friday, October 26, 2007

Happy birthday, Beryl Markham.

Aviator and successful thoroughbred trainer Beryl Markham, author of West with the Night (1942), which deals with her pioneering 1936 solo flight from England to a crash landing in Nova Scotia, was born today in England in 1902. She died in 1986.

It has been disputed that Markham wrote the book (ex-husband Raoul Schumacher claimed authorship), but this question remains unresolved.

At least two characters on screen have been based on Markham: Felicity, played by Australian Suzanna Hamilton in Out of Africa (1985), and aviator Emma Fitzgerald, played by Susannah Harker, in Mystery!'s Heat of the Sun (1998).

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