I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong Hills

These words are etched in my memory. Not because of the book where I first read them, but - I admit - because of the film loosely made after it. A sentence that raises questions: Why doesn't she have this farm anymore? And from there a vivid imagination can occupy itself for a long time.

"Out of Africa" is the biography of the Danish author Karen Blixen. A story from a bygone era, Kenya before the First World War to the 1930s: a Danish couple buys a farm, but both farm and marriage fail. From today's point of view (at least for me) the description of the country and the people there is more interesting than the interpersonal or economic events.

She writes from the point of view of her time and her social position, but still the descriptions of the land and the locals are amazingly insightful. She describes the different ways of life and customs of Maasai and Kikuyu, their relationship with long-time employees - but she also knows that a real friendship is limited by social position and socialisation. Perhaps her perspective is so different from that of many (mostly British) writers because, although she was born into a wealthy family in a monarchy and married into a noble family, she was born in tiny Denmark and not in colonial Britain.

I recommend both the book and the film: the film is very well cast, has wonderful landscape shots and has won several Oscars for good reason, and the book describes, calmly and unagitatedly, a picture of a bygone era.

Oh by the way, other stories of hers were also made into films and "Babette's Feast" won another Academy Award.
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