Sorry for the awful African cliched title, but in this case I am entited to use the phrase that a million lazy headline writers have used to descibe this wonderfully diverse continent.
I have just visited Karen Blixen's home in a suburb of Nairobi called Karen, which was named after her. There is also a Karen Road, Karen coffee house and anything else you can think of.
The house is exactly 100 years old and holds up very well. It is now a museum sitting in lovely gardens about 15 kms from the city centre. Of course in Blixen's time the house and farm was in virgin bush.
She clearly had a sense of adventure when she agreed to sail to Mombassa and marry Baron Blixen - a fellow Dane, I believe. The marriage didn't last and she hooked up with dashing Englishman Finch Haton - played by Robert Redford in the movie. Many of the props used in the film are in the house.
Apparently, she didn't begin to write until she returned to Denmark after 14 years on safari and working the family farm. Out of Africa remains her best known work.
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