Three of Blixen's short stories from Africa, beautifully written as always. I have these stories in another collection but the Penguin 60 is a lovely little way to dip into them.

Karen Blixen, using her pseudonym of Isak Dinesen, wrote Out of Africa, her account of the time she spent in British Easy Africa, now Kenya. Selections from this book was published for the Penguin 60s series as From the Ngong Hills. The description of the Hills and her coffee plantation located in the Great Rift Valley near Nairobi is lyrical. She also describes the animals she hunted on safari as well as near the plantation. There is a section on the “natives” including a sick child from her farm that she takes to a hospital; later he becomes a worker at her house and an excellent cook. Denys Finch Hatton is introduced as a friend who stays with her when not leading a safari. He introduces her to flying and her description of the land from above was breathtaking.

The book is a good introduction to the longer autobiography. But be aware that the prejudices of colonial settlers are very much in evidence, especially as it pertains to the native Africans. Read in context, it is the saga of those Europeans who came to settle and rule in foreign lands during the time between the wars; it was how Blixen and those of her class saw the world of Africa. ( )