During the 1930s, Markham returned to England. In 1936 she took up the challenge to fly solo from London to New York, a risky enterprise that involved flying against prevailing winds. Although Markham came down somewhat short of the mark, crash-landing her plane into a peat bog in Nova Scotia, she survived the flight and became an instant celebrity. After the death of a close friend and fellow pilot, Markham lost interest in flying but she wrote about her achievement and her Kenyan childhood in West with the Night (1942). The memoir has been celebrated as both a lyrical depiction of her life in Kenya and an exciting account of her experience breaking new ground as an aviatrix.
Settling British East Africa. During the late nineteenth century, Britain, along with France, Portugal, Germany, and Italy, engaged in a scramble for control of Africa. Spurred on by tiny Belgium’s establishment of the Congo Free State in 1879, Britain sent troops and missionaries into West Africa, subduing indigenous peoples by military force and religious conversion. In the 1880s, Britain explored and laid claim to territories in the East African interior as well.
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