James Fox (1)Critiques

The early chapters are slow, but necessary in order to set the scene. Once the murder happens things get interesting.

Deeply engrossing book that unravels a notorious murder, that of Josslyn Hay, Earl of Errol. In order to unravel the mystery, Fox and his deceased colleague Cyril Connolly do a masterful job of delving deep into the corrupt society of the "Happy Valley" of 1920s-1940s Kenya, and the odd and strange personalities that existed there. They also go through the evidence quite thoroughly, and track down surviving witnesses and participants (this was done in the 1960s, when it was still possible). The result is quite logical; the cops got the right man, but didn't have the full evidence to convict. Fox and Connolly, in my mind, did.

Considering this book solves a long-standing and famous murder mystery, I find it perplexing that the ending doesn't come to more of a crescendo. Somehow it felt a bit of a let down and I don't know why. But I found it an interesting read and quite worthwhile.

While there is a map included it doesn't specifically show where the principal events occurred; I'd love a map that showed the house at Karen, the Muthaiga Club, the accident site, etc. That's a missed opportunity.

I was not happy with the Kindle formatting. The quotations were not distinctly set apart from the author's text and frequently what should have been commas came through as periods. These caused incoherence in the text and should be fixed.

I was happy to find photographs at the end and wish there had been links to them throughout the account. Nonfiction books need to make better use of electronic formats!½

While biographies can be somewhat boring, I found this a most ineresting venue into the world of socialite sisters.

A decent book about the famous Langhorne sisters. The most famous of these sisters, Nancy (Lady Astor), is the one that takes up most of the pages in this book. Politics plays a heavy hand in the lives of these sisters, and the description of it can get tedious. To that end, the descriptions of the relationships of the sisters themselves is the most interesting part of the book. However, if you are looking to read a book about a family of sisters, I would suggest the Mitford sisters, as it is somewhat better.

It is also worth noting that the author, James Fox, is a descendant of Phyllis Langhorne, one of the five sisters of the book.

Read during Fall 2001

An account of the murder of Lord Errol in 1930's Kenya. Too many names! I should have kept a notebook. The story is amazing but the telling is not as good. I found the index of names in the back too late to help me.

White Mischief: The Murder of Lord Erroll by James Fox is a 2014 Open Road Media Publication. I was provided a copy of this book by the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book examines the infamous case of Lord Erroll and the wild and kinky goings on of the upper class English while vacationing in Kenya. Many of us true crime buffs are familiar at least to some extent with this story. It's been fictionalized in other books and of course there was the movie entitled “White Mischief”- released in 1987 and stars Sarah Miles. The movie script was also written by James Fox, the author of this book.

The time is 1941, the place is Kenya. The wealthy and the titled are part of the “Happy Valley” group and indulge in drugs, entirely too much alcohol and are into partner swapping, adultery, affairs, sex games and of course sooner or later someone takes things personally and a man loses his life.
While the world is at war or preparing for war this group happily trounces about without a care in the world, with too much money, and too much time on their hands. The murder of Josslyn Hay throws cold water, well ice cold water on the festivities as the lifestyle of the rich and famous is scrutinized publicly.
Josslyn and Diana fall in love mere months after her marriage to an older man. Diana and Josslyn do not really hide the affair and are seen out together often and apparently Diana is truthful about the affair with her husband.
When Hays was found in his car with a bullet to the head naturally, Jock Delves, Diana's husband was a prime suspect. He was arrested and went to trial.

This where the book shifts gears and begins to focus on Jock Delves, the trial and subsequent articles written about the case back in the states. Cyril Connelly was James Fox's co-researcher and I do understand the author's wish to give the man credit for his work, but I did ask myself a few times if perhaps the second half of the book was about the murder case or Cyril Connelly.
Otherwise, the trial, the evidence, the testimony and the curious behavior of Jock was very interesting. I would have to agree that Jock made the best suspect for the murder, but there were others, former lovers of Josslyn's as an example, that very could have come unhinged by his publicly flaunting his affair with Diana and how obviously in love they were. While most researchers and authors believe they know who killed Lord Erroll, there is still just enough doubt that we are left with a feeling of uncertainty. As is so often the case, once a trial has taken place and the accused is acquitted the murder, the case remained unsolved and is to this very day no one has ever paid for the murder of Lord Erroll.

Even if you are familiar with this case, even if you have seen the 1987 movie, I do recommend you read this book because there is new evidence that came to light after the movie was made and those new facts are included in this book.

The journalistic style of writing could at times become a little dull. But, the antics of the Happy Valley members and the excerpts from the trial were enough to make up for that. So, if you enjoy true crime, especially historical true crime, which is personal favorite of mine, then you will really enjoy this one. Overall this one gets 4 stars.

A re-read to fit in with the Kenyan theme of the previous two books. It is a non-fiction investigation of the Erroll murder on which the film of the same name was based. It is very interesting, even if it doesn't come to any conclusion about who really did kill the Earl of Erroll.

I enjoyed this story of prewar Kenyan settler intrique. I am now reading Juanita Carberry CHILD OF HAPPY VALLEY as a follow on. Fox had done considerable research into his subject although the detail is a bit heavy at times, probably it should be read more carefully and slowly than I did.

Terrific retelling of the true story of the murder of Lord Erroll, in January 1941. He was a leading light in a group of white settlers in Kenya, whose community was called "Happy Valley", and was notorious as a hotbed of scandal. Most of the people in the book are dramatically unlikeable, but one keeps on reading in a sort of fascinated horror.½

History as reportage written so well that it is hard to judge the depth of the research because it looks so good.½

History of the daughters of Chiswell Dabney Langhorne. Next-to-last daughter Nancy's second husband was Waldorf Astor, later 2nd Viscount Astor.

Kenya Biography