White Mischief

Of the many reasons you may have for reading this book, you must not pick it up to learn who murdered Josslyn Hay, Earl of Errol. James Fox will give you all the facts and then let you decide. As Fox points out, "there were many people in Kenya who had a motive for killing Errol, and many who had the opportunity that night." To this day it remains an unsolved crime, a "cold case," dating to 1941. But when Fox and his Sunday Times Magazine colleague, Cyril Connolly, began their investigations, in 1969, there were still several people living who were personally involved in the case. Connolly and Fox, working together left no stone unturned, and wrote up their findings in the Sunday Times Magazine. But credit Fox, convinced that there were still facts to learn, for returning to the case after Connolly's death. By the time we turn the last page, we know the whereabouts of every person on a minute to minute basis throughout the night Lord Errol was shot in the head at close range and left on the floor of his car in a ditch. We know their drugs of choice, the calibers of their pistols, their alibis, and their manifold motives. Certainly the preponderance of evidence points to Lord Jock Delves Broughton (pronounced Brawton), whose wife had been Lord Erroll's latest conquest. Broughton, however, was released on lack of evidence. It was, however, precisely because Fox was so familiar with the case, more so than most of the actual protagonists, that he was able to approach Broughton's widow, Diana, Lady Delamere, and chat with her in 1981, forty years after the murder. Fox gained her confidence and he eventually learned her own theory as to the murder's identity. Fox gives us descriptions of stunning clarity of the Kenyan landscape, the society of Happy Valley, the Muthaiga Club, and the personalities which peopled the drama which so obsessed him as it had his colleague, Connolly, before him. We owe Fox a debt of gratitude for his renderings of wartime Kenyan colonial society, which, were it not for the murder of Lord Erroll, may well have faded from memory and history with the passage of time. Fox has documented more than a murder; he has preserved a slice of history forever, and it is a deliciously salacious history at that.

Interesting and easy read - Fox has done his research well. My late husband's parents were Kenya settlers and his father had NO respect for the Happy Valley crowd AT ALL. Fox has certainly filled in many of the gaps left in the story my husband, Len Gill told me and has introduced me to a new side of some of the characters Len knew. I only wish I had read this book before my husband died of cancer. So many questions - so little time for answers.

This brilliant book examines the story of the British colony of Kenya in the 1940s, particularly the white upper class that immigrated their as settlers and enjoyed themselves immensely. This is a culture that is vanished completely, both in England, with the class distinctions and 'public school' and in Africa and elswhere, where colonial societies have vanished. A brilliant study of a philandering wealthy society in the 'Happy Valley' settlement in Kenya, the 'White highlands' and the sort of folk who immigrated their. It examines the death of Lord Errol, a man of many disguises who loved not only women but also marriage to increase his wealth. This murder upset the small colony when it took place in 1941 and was a great scandal. This picture painted by this book is brilliant and loving, touching, interesting, history and novel rolled into one. Seth J. Frantzman

This is a simply fascinating book for anyone interested in colonial Africa, murder mysteries and just plain good writing. The author James Fox, an erudite Eton graduate, does much more than simply describe the wild African setting, the fascinating murder involved and the absurdly decadent lifestyle of the characters involved. He also tracks the process of his research and the input of the quirky British author, Cyril Connelly who simultaneously studied the events at hand. Fox uses the murder of man-about-town Lord Erroll as a backdrop to chronicle the deterioration of a British subculture in the early 1900's. While war was being waged in Europe, this group of moneyed and titled hedonists (who left their kiddies back home) lived a surrealistic life of partying, drinking, drugging and partner swapping. Such a detached lifestyle virtually requires a murder or two as a logical conclusion.Although the accused, Lord "Jock" Delves Broughton, is aquitted in an African trial (with lots of perjury involved) Fox makes no secret of his opinion that Boughton was the culprit. That does not dampen the book one bit because it is the cast of characters and how they talk about each other that is the best part of the book. The only problem I had with Fox's ultimate theory is that he bases it upon an interview with an eccentric, elderly woman who was only 15 years old at the time of the crime. Although she claims the suspect confessed the crime to her immediately after its commission, she did not reveal that alleged fact to anyone until Fox interviewed her in the 1980's. As a legal professional, I find that kind of evidence inherently not credible. This woman had plenty of opportunity to reveal the alleged confession on many prior occasions and Fox's reasons for her failure to do so are a bit far-fetched.This slight criticism does not in any way demean the entire book however as the rest of Fox's research and conclusions based thereupon seem sound.All in all, this is a fascinating book that is hard to put down. The peripheral characters such as Alice de Janze and Lord Soames are equally as intriguing as the main characters.

James Fox takes the reader into the world of 1941's Happy Valley crowd of Nairobi, Kenya to explore the murder of of Jossyln Hay, Earl of Erroll. The Earl, better known as Joss, was a member of the upper-class enclave of English colonials living in Kenya at the time of WWII. A lady's man, Joss Hay, like many of the Happy Valley set, ignored the "rules" of society, and indulged himself with who ever caught his eye, married or not. He was found, on the morning of January 24, shot through the head, in a car near Happy Valley. This account of a true story, resurfaces all the decadence and indulgence that is a major force of history of Nairobi's colonial society. A suspect was brought to trial, but the case was never resolved. Mr. Fox, years later, examines the evidence of the trial, interviews survivors, and escorts the reader through the process of investigation to discover who really pulled the trigger and why. A riveting look at a pageantry of trash, this book reads like a superb mystery story.