by Jon Arensen | Sep 25, 2013 | Jon Arensen
The following blog is taken from my latest book titled “The Red Pelican”. It is the third book of my Sudan trilogy and follows “Drinking the Wind and “Chasing the Rain”. All of these books can purchased at Amazon.com Dick Lyth and his...
by Christine Nicholls | Sep 23, 2013 | Christine Nicholls
Last month we saw how Mayence Bent started the Stanley Hotel in Nairobi on Victoria Street (now Tom Mboya Street). She abandoned her so-called ‘husband’, William Bent (actually her step-brother) and took up with Frederick Francis Tate, fifteen years her junior (he was...
by Shel Arensen | Aug 29, 2013 | Shel Arensen
Here’s an excellent book review by Jeremy Hooker on one of our recent Old Africa book titles. The review first appeared in August 2013 in the Powys Journal no XXIII and we thank the Powys Journal and Jeremy Hooker for their permission to share the book review here....
by Christine Nicholls | Aug 22, 2013 | Christine Nicholls
Mayence Ellen Bent, the founder of the New Stanley Hotel (now the Stanley Ramada) in Nairobi, had a most interesting early life. She was born in the district of St Pancras, London, on 17 April 1868, the daughter of Walter Bentley Woodbury and Marie Olmeijer. Her own...
by Christine Nicholls | Jul 24, 2013 | Christine Nicholls
Sammy Jacobs (1887-1951) In my blogs of 2 January and 25 January 2012 I talked about the arrival of Jewish families in Kenya. One person I mentioned was Solomon (Sammy) Jacobs, proprietor of the Dustpan emporium in Nairobi before the First World War. Recently his...
by Jon Arensen | Jun 24, 2013 | Jon Arensen
Vacations at the Indian Ocean have been part of the Arensen tradition for many years. When I was a boy my parents would take the family to the coast once a year – usually for 10 days. We used to stay in a run-down self-serve cottage that cost us $5 a day. However, we...
by Christine Nicholls | Jun 24, 2013 | Christine Nicholls
At a lunch attended by Kenyan oldies last week, talk turned to the early settlers in Eldoret. Why were there so many South African Boers there? The first to come were the Van Breda brothers, who built a grass hut on the Uasin Gishu plateau in 1903 and started to grow...
by admin | Jun 20, 2013 | Elaine Barnett
One of my early recollections is when my parents, George (Hap) and Betty Donner gave me a special baby doll named Becky. Becky was the size of a two-to-four-month-old baby. Becky had blue eyes with long eyelashes that closed when I laid her down. Here body was soft...
by admin | Jun 20, 2013 | Elaine Barnett
When my big brother Cal was home from boarding school, my younger sister Marlowe and I enjoyed playing ‘pretend’ in very creative ways. Being quite young when we’d left the USA for Tanganyika, our memories of America were dim at best. I recall wearing hats and...
by Christine Nicholls | May 21, 2013 | Christine Nicholls
I came across a letter written by Mrs Brian Shaw, of Sotik, in the early days of white settlement in Kenya. The hardships the settlers faced were enormous. When Brian Shaw developed acute appendicitis a doctor and nurse had to come from Nakuru, while friends and...
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