April’s Book Club meeting was held in Kwadendamme.
Despite the fact that I had, for once, remembered to bring the Tom Tom, I managed to get lost on entering the village.
It was a beautiful early spring evening, still light, so driving alongside the tree lined polder roads wasn’t too much of a penance and if we hadn’t had to be somewhere (and it’s usually me that insists on punctuality), it would have been very pleasant. As we appeared to be missing our target, I decided to ask someone for directions.
Typically, the first person to appear didn’t fit into the regular burger category. Striding along was a man in his sixties with very long loose grey hair and a rather too determined look in his eye. I decided to drive on rather than slow down or stop, as visions of that determined eye transforming into something more menacing suddenly overwhelmed me ( my over active imagination has been further stimulated over the years by a few unforgettable Japanese horror films).
Incidentally, if you are that man and are simply a child of the sixties out for an innocent stroll whilst contemplating life’s iniquities (hence the look), my profound apologies.
We drove on. Just as the TomTom was about to be launched from the car and go sleep with the fishes in the nearest ditch, we spot a likely contender for directions.
Happily, my co- passenger, (after a bit of shoving), volunteered to get out of the car and enquire as to our whereabouts. Spotting my obvious blondness behind the wheel, this compassionate person offered to drive in front of us and then indicate when we reached our destination - a mere few minutes away but which could have been on the other side of the world had we not had help.
The book under discussion was Karen Blixen’s Out of Africa. This was chosen by our hostess that evening as she had planned to read it whilst holidaying in Africa, in a country adjacent to Kenya where the book is set. Many different Africans are mentioned in the book but its main characters are Kikuyu, who are indigenous to Kenya and form the greater part of the workforce on the farm, Somalians and Masai.
The Masai are nomadic, cattle rearing people unburdened by religion and motivated by the continual quest for water and grazing opportunities.
We were fortunate in being able to see and handle some items made by them which our hostess had brought back from Africa.
Another book club member had thoroughly researched Karen Blixen’s life through the internet and was able to give us additional facts about her life both in Africa and after she had returned to her native Denmark.
Karen Blixen had moved to Kenya to marry her future husband the Baron von Blixen. They had originally intended to become dairy farmers, but had instead grown coffee. Theirs was not a successful marriage due to his unfaithfulness and they eventually divorced.
The book is an illustration of her life there and describes many incidents and her relationships with her staff, especially Farah her capable Somali manager, and the ex-pats., notably the plane owning Denys Finch Hatton with whom she had an affair.
She also writes enthusiastically about the wildlife although she was typically unsentimental and not afraid to shoot whatever needed culling.
Unhappily for her she was forced to abandon the farm after a succession of droughts and locust attacks resulted in disastrous harvests. She returned to Denmark, where she resumed her writing career and completed this book.
She was nominated for the Nobel Prize for literature and has museums dedicated to her in Rungstedlund in the house that she was born in, and in Nairobe.
Out of Africa was of course made into a film starring Meryl Streep and Robert Redford.
As a postscript, thank-you to that kindly Kwadendammer for the help with directions -I doubt very much that Ms Blixen would have had any problem finding her way around with or without navigational aid.
We gave the book 4/5
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