Straight on Till Morning by Mary S. Lovell Page A

into anti-Europeanism in the shape of the terrorist movement known as the Mau-Mau, which involved secret oath-taking ceremonies where initiates (often unwillingly) swore to kill Europeans and those who supported them. 7 It was the grisly, ritualistic manner of the murders which followed – of men, women and children of both races – that was so frightening. In the general fear and panic a State of Emergency was declared by the British and the leader of the nationalist movement, Jomo Kenyatta, was sentenced to imprisonment. It took five years to bring the situation under control, and it was to be a further five years before the Kenyan Africans achieved independence with Kenyatta as the first president. Meanwhile inhabitants of up-country farms lived in trepidation, and servants who had once been thought of as friends were necessarily treated with suspicion. It was not the Kenya that Beryl remembered.
    Everything changed for her one evening in Nairobi when she met Charles and Doreen Bathurst Norman at ‘some formal function or other. She was all dressed up and looking fantastic – I’d heard of her of course, she was very much part of the old-Kenya legend…’ Doreen recalled. When Beryl told the couple how worried she was at not having anywhere to live and no money, they did not hesitate ‘Our guest cottage is empty at the moment – you can use that!’ they told her. At first Doreen silently half-regretted the hasty invitation and wondered what it was going to be like with that ‘blonde bombshell’ around all the time, but the next day Beryl turned up at the farm at Naro Moru wearing an old mac and wellington boots. The women became friends from that moment.
    The Bathurst Normans were an exceptionally close-knit family and one of the happiest things about this period for Beryl was the Bathurst Norman children, George and Victoria, who were aged twelve and ten. Active and self-confident, they attached themselves to Beryl, and much to her surprise they liked her and enjoyed her company. Equally to her surprise, for she had never been closely involved with children, she liked them in turn. ‘Victoria would carefully put her head around the door of the guest house in the very early morning, and if there was a welcome, she would jump into Beryl’s bed with her.’
    Over the next few years, many were the evenings they spent listening to Beryl’s collection of Burl Ives records, with which they would all join in. Beryl taught them to play card games such as poker and backgammon, with matches as stakes, 8 as her father had once taught her. They were fascinated by her stories of horses and people and places, and impressed by her horsemanship but, as they recalled years later, she never spoke to them of her own exploits. Beryl was essentially modest, and never discussed her adventures or successes. Possibly these children knew ‘the real Beryl’ better than anyone else, for she was relaxed in their company.
    Forest Farm, the Bathurst Normans’ property at Naro Moru, was situated on the grasslands which intersected with belts of forest on the slopes of twin-peaked Mount Kenya, immediately below the perpetually glistening Diamond Glacier. Park-like grasslands were bordered by primeval forests of cedar festooned with curtains of lichen. Podocarpus of airy green, bushes of sweet-smelling, evergreen witch-hazel, and clumps of cedar dotted the grass, edged with the enchanting limuria bush, smothered in beautiful little jasmine-like flowers, at least as sweetly scented and which turned into a wild berry – delicious when fully ripe. Among the grass grew a profusion of wild flowers such as the wild gladiolus and the lovely Acidanthra candida , locally thought to be a freesia because of its scent. The air itself was crisp and thyme-scented ‘like the Sussex Downs’, Charles Bathurst Norman used to say.
    Through the forest rushed and bubbled a mountain stream,