100 Glorious Years of Cricket in Kenya

In 2027 the Kenya Kongonis Cricket Club will be celebrating 100 years of glorious cricket and MCC Member Julian Ince is helping to gather and collate material about this illustrious old Cricket Club, to produce a Centenary Coffee Table book to commemorate this historic occasion.

If any Members have photos or anecdotes or any information about the Kenya Kongonis Cricket Club from days gone by and would like to share them with Julian and his editorial team, please contact him directly by email julianince@gmail.com

Song of Love

“Song of Love”

This is a very old, charming and fascinating film depicting the intertwined lives of three musical legends - Clara Wieck (Schumann), Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms. I had planned to show it in March but had to reschedule and will now start this quarter by screening it in April.

The story spans from Clara and Robert’s meeting, their marriage and meeting Johannes, to Robert’s early death. A movie featuring such music legends can only contain the most glorious soundtrack with all their own compositions plus scores from other composers of their time like, very prominently, Franz Liszt.

“Song of Love” will be screened in the Ballroom on 27th April, at 6pm.

“Le Compte Ory”

This is one of the funniest opera performances of all times. Imagine a picturesque medieval country where most of the men have gone off to fight in the Crusades. Among the few who remain behind is a young nobleman intent on seducing all the women. He has his eye on one particular Countess and takes up residence outside her castle disguised as a saintly hermit. When his disguise is blown, he decides to make another bold attempt at conquest and, in order to gain access to the castle, he dresses up as ... a nun. The three superstars are perfect - Perfect singers, perfect actors, and perfect comedians with impeccable timing.

“Le Compte Ory” will be shown in the Ballroom on 25th May, at 6pm.

“Celine”

Celine Dion needs no introductions; even the “opera buffs” like me know her and several of her most successful songs.

This film follows the extraordinary events taking Celine from “rags to riches” from her early childhood to one of the longest and most brilliant careers of any known artist.

“Celine” will be screened in the ballroom on 22nd June, at 6pm.

The interwined lives of three musical legends

Clara Wieck

Robert Schumann

JohannesBrahms

The Passenger

by Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz

‘The Passenger’ lay buried and forgotten for 80 years but has recently been rediscovered and republished, and is regarded as one of the greatest novels about the Second World War to come to light again in recent times.

Berlin, November 1938. Synagogues are being burnt, Jews rounded up and their businesses destroyed. Otto Silbermann has managed to evade the escalating violence of the Nazi regime - until now. With stormtroopers battering on his door, he steals out the back and begins a desperate race to escape.

Turned away from establishments he had long patronised, betrayed by friends and colleagues, Otto finds his life as a respectable businessman has dissolved overnight. Desperately trying to conceal his Jewish identity, he takes train after train across Germany in a race to escape this homeland that is no longer home.

‘The Passenger’ is a gripping novel that plunges the reader into the gloom of Nazi Germany as the darkness was descending. Written at breakneck speed in 1938, by twenty-three-year-old Ulrich Boschwitz, fresh in the wake of the Kristallnacht pogroms, his prose flies at the same pace. Vibrating with fury, his writing is filled with vivid characterisation, sharp dialogue and intensely observed scenes. ‘The Passenger’ is a compelling depiction of the terrifying atmosphere of Nazi Germany with sufficient pace to be a thriller, but with enough depth to be of real literary weight.

Eighty years on, this tale of a Jewish businessman, forever travelling but going nowhere, is a precious rediscovery – both deeply satisfying as a novel and a vital historical document.

Exploring The World

by Alexander Maitland

“I am prepared to go anywhere, provided it is forward.” This quote from David Livingstone could be applied to many of those who appear in Alexander Maitland’s new book, ‘Exploring the World.’

Honouring more than 80 recipients of the Royal Geographical Society medal, ‘Exploring the World’ tells the riveting stories of expeditions and adventurers from David Livingstone to Jacques Cousteau in pageturning prose.

Explorers and travellers have always been attracted by the lure of the unknown. By traversing and mapping our planet, they have played a vital role in mankind’s development. For almost two hundred years, the Royal Geographical Society has recognised their achievements by awarding its prestigious gold medals to those who have contributed most to our knowledge of the world.

Taking us on a journey across mountains and deserts, oceans and seas, filled with epic tales of endurance and perseverance, ‘Exploring the World’ celebrates a group of more thank 80 exceptional individuals possessed of indomitable courage, boundless determination and adventurous spirit. It portrays a variety of fascinating lives driven by curiosity, wanderlust and the pursuit of knowledge – and, in doing so, provides a unique overview of two centuries of exploration.

Nearly all of the men and women covered are worthy of a book in their own right, but what emerges is the inspiring singularity of so many of these intrepid individuals. They aren’t all high-achievers and often come across as unconventional and intractable, occasionally irrational, but nearly always resolute, even in their contrariness.

Bristling with heroic tales of indomitable characters forcing their way in impossible circumstances through forests, over mountains and across deserts in search of a better understanding of this world, as an eyebrow-raising page-turner, this book is hard to beat.

The Cole Legacy

by Andrew Enniskillen

Here’s a glimpse of a recent past to remind readers of the astonishing efforts of a small group of energetic entrepreneurs who helped build this country after independence. Andrew Cole is one such person who made the most of unexpected opportunities to become one of the more influential business leaders in Kenya during the last three decades of the 20th century.

He writes of his ‘fortunate’ upbringing –distinct from one of privilege – and muses about the crossroads that might have led him in different directions. Narrowly failing to get into Cambridge after his years at Eton; choosing not to go to Hong Kong with a friend, Simon Keswick, who went on to run Jardines; the impact of a broken leg when serving with the Irish Guards in Kenya; being forced to choose a career outside farming. Instead, he took to flying and over a decade or so built up a highly-respected airline – Sunbird, now better known as Air Kenya – before ill-health prevented him from remaining a commercial pilot.

He was head-hunted (in the days when such decisions were based as much on who you knew, as what you knew) to run CFC Bank – now better known as Stanbic. Then picked to run Kenya Airways, laying out a blueprint that was first ignored by the government before being adopted by Brian Davies and his team, leading to KQ becoming the Pride of Africa. In later years, he chaired the Lake Naivasha Riparian Association, taking on powerful flower and vegetable lobby groups, and all while managing AAR, building the company to be the force it is today.

It’s a remarkable story, as interesting for what’s left unsaid as much as for the story told. Let’s hope the book launch will allow us to hear more about the spaces between the lines.

Andrew Enniskillen will be giving a talk and signing copies of his book at the Club – date to be confirmed.