Denys Finch Hatton Books

Denys George Finch Hatton (1887 - 1931) was a big game hunter who turned professional in 1925. He is probably most renowned for his relationships with Karen Blixen (Isak Dinesen), being immortalised in her book 'Out Of Africa' and the aviatrix Beryl Markham. He did not write a book about his life or times but there are several biographies about him and his ladies.

Books About Denys Finch Hatton

Sara Wheeler

Too Close To The Sun: The Life And Times Of Denys Finch Hatton by Sara Wheeler (2006). Conservationist, scholar, soldier, white hunter and fabled lover, Denys Finch Hatton was an aristocrat of leonine nonchalance. After a dazzling career at Eton and Oxford, he sailed in 1910 for British East Africa. There he first had an affair with with Karen Blixen and then the glamorous aviatrix Beryl Markham. This is a story of big guns and small planes, princes from England and sultans from Zanzibar, marauding lions, syphilis, self-destruction and the tragedy of the human heart.

Errol Trzebinski

Silence Will Speak: A Study Of The Life Of Denys Finch Hatton And His Relationship With Karen Blixen by Errol Trzebinski (1977) is a full-length biography of Denys Finch Hatton who was Isak Dinesen's friend and lover in Kenya in the 1920s as well as the friend of aviatrix Beryl Markham.

The Lives Of Beryl Markham by Errol Trzebinski (1993) is the biography of the hauntingly beautiful, tough as steel, totally amoral and immensely brave, Beryl Markham who inspired lust, resentment and admiration and was chased by scandal wherever she went. Married three times, she counted Edward Prince of Wales, his brother the Duke of Gloucester and Denys Finch Hatton among her lovers. Capping notoriety with fame, in 1936 Beryl Markham became the first woman to fly solo west across the Atlantic, the feat described in her bestselling memoir 'West with the Night'.

The Life And Death Of Lord Errol by Errol Trzebinski (2000) Reveals for the first time, the shocking truth behind the Happy Valley murder.

The Kenya Pioneers by Errol Trzebinski (1985). Between 1896 and 1920 hundreds of Europeans settled in East Africa. The author shows what life was like then, not just for the white intruders but for the Indian railway artisans and the Africans and the tireless effort required to hone bush into farmland.

Karen Blixen (Isak Dinesen)

Baroness Karen von Blixen-Finecke (1885 - 1962) was a Danish author also known by her pen name Isak Dinesen. During her early years in Kenya, Karen Blixen met the English big game hunter Denys Finch Hatton and developed a close friendship which eventually became a long-term love affair.

Out Of Africa by Karen Blixen (1937) is an account of the author's experiences on a coffee-farm in Kenya and her love affair with Denys Finch Hatton. After her divorce from Bror Blixen in 1925, Finch Hatton moved into her house and began his professional hunting career.

Click here to buy the movie Out Of Africa on DVD.

Shadows Of The Grass by Karen Blixen (Isak Dinesen) (1960) takes up the absorbing story of her life in Kenya begun in the unforgettable 'Out of Africa', which she published under the name of Karen Blixen. With warmth and humanity these four stories illuminate her love both for the African people, their dignity and traditions and for the beauty and wildness of the landscape. The first three were written in the 1950s and the last, 'Echoes from the Hills', was written especially for this volume in the summer of 1960 when the author was in her seventies. In all, they provide a moving final chapter to her African reminiscences.

Linda Donelson

Out Of Isak Dinesen In Africa: The Untold Story by Linda Donelson (1995)

Parmenia Migel

Titania: The Biography Of Isak Dinesen by Parmenia Migel (1967) was the first biography about Isak Dinesen written with delicacy and insight. Karen Blixen was the author's close personal friend for many years.

Olga Anastasia Pelensky

Isak Dinesen: The Life And Imagination Of A Seducer by Olga Pelensky (1991). For this biography, Pelensky has uncovered papers in libraries and private collections and interviewed sources in Africa, Denmark and England to help put the pieces of Dinesen's life together.

Judith Thurman

Isak Dinesen: The Life Of A Story Teller by Judith Thurman (1982) is a classic work which explores Dinesen's life - her privileged but unhappy childhood in Denmark, her marriage to Baron Blixen, their immigration to Africa on the eve of World War I and her passionate affair with Denys Finch Hatton.

The Life Of Karen Blixen/Isak Dinesen In Images

Beryl Markham

Beryl Markham (1902 - 1986) was a British-born Kenyan horse trainer and adventurer. During the pioneer days of aviation, she became the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic from east to west. She befriended Karen Blixen during the years that Blixen was managing her coffee farm in the Ngong hills outside Nairobi and when Blixen's affair with Denys Finch Hatton was winding down, Markham started an affair with him herself.

She used to spot game, especially elephant from her aircraft for Finch Hatton and Bror Blixen and their hunting clients.

West With The Night by Beryl Markham (1942) is an exceptional autobiography filled with a strong spirit and fascinating events. Beryl Markham was raised by her father on a large farm in British East Africa in the early 20th century. As a child she preferred spear hunting with the natives to her school lessons. At 17, when her father lost their farm and went to Peru, she chose to stay in Africa and began a highly successful career as a race horse trainer. In her 20s she gave up horses and started flying airplanes, becoming the first woman in East Africa to be granted a commercial pilot's license, then the first woman to fly the Atlantic from east to west.

The Splendid Outcast: Beryl Markham's African Stories by Beryl Markham (1987). A collection of Markham's short stories previously published in magazines, about horses and horseracing, aviation and Africa. These stories were collected by Mary S Lovell and published posthumously.

Mary S Lovell

Straight on Till Morning: A Biography of Beryl Markham by Mary S Lovell (1987). The life and times of Beryl Markham, the British-born Kenyan horse trainer and adventurer, described as the first person to fly the Atlantic East to West in a solo non-stop flight.

Back to Errol Trzebinski's biography 'The Lives Of Beryl Markham'

Free to Fly Again | A Montage Of Famous Aviatrix Authors Including Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen) And Beryl Markham

More Books Featuring Denys Finch Hatton

Genesta Hamilton

A Stone's Throw: Travels From Africa In Six Decades by Genesta Hamilton (1986) are extracts from the author's diaries between 1914 and 1981. Living in Kenya and friends with Denys Finch-Hatton, Bror and Karen Blixen and Lord Errol, she also travelled to Spain, Germany, Russia and Eastern Europe.

Gretchen Cron

The Roaring Veldt by Gretchen Cron (1930). Accompanied by her husband Herman, Cron describes several hunting trips to the Serengeti Plains of Tanganyika in the 1920s. She describes exciting hunting encounters with elephant, rhino and lion, with a particularly hair raising account of stalking a bull buffalo dubbed the 'Black Shadow.' There are additional descriptions of hunting leopard and kongoni. Herman Cron battled a severe bout with malaria and the opportune arrival of Denys Finch-Hatton helped save his life.

Frederick Patterson

African Adventures by Frederick Patterson (1928) who hunted with Denys Finch Hatton for lions, elephants and rhino. One of the few books to have a photo of Denys Finch-Hatton.

J A Hunter witnessed the aircraft crash that killed Denys Finch Hatton and writes about it in 'Hunter's Tracks'