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Thursday, 1 March 2018

Child of Happy Valley: A Memoir by Juanita Carberry (1999)


If you enjoy a pleasant read that takes you to distant horizons, such as Kenya in the 1920s, this book is well worth reading.

This is the memoir of Juanita Carberry who was born and raised in Kenya, it tells us about her both extraordinary and unhappy childhood. She lost her mother at the age of three and since that time she lived with her unloving father, stepmother and a vicious nanny.

As we read this book, we also learn a little more about the lives of those who made up the Happy Valley set and the events surrounding the death of Lord Erroll. Juanita wrote that Delves Broughton admitted to her privately that he was in fact guilty of the murder, but was acquitted at the trial. Juanita knew all the members of the Happy Valley set. She disliked this group and when she grew older she avoided becoming part of it.