Kenya Series

by Christopher Nicole 2 books in this series

The Kenya novels follow the Barclay family and the people connected to it from European exploration of the East African highlands into the twentieth-century crisis of colonial rule. The High Country begins with Adrian Barclay and Kurt von Schlieben, whose discovery of a supposed paradise becomes entangled with settlement, racial power and violence.

The Happy Valley shifts to Adrian’s descendants and the relationship between John Barclay and Joseph Kinshashu. Their friendship survives the First World War but is ultimately divided by land, African nationalism and the claim that settler ownership can be reconciled with justice for the Kikuyu population.

Reading order

Books in this series (2 books)

1. The High Country

Christopher Nicole

First published 1988

4.2(751)

In the brave, colourful days of Livingstone and Stanley two young Europeans from very different backgrounds, Adrian Barclay and Kurt von Schlieben, explore the fabled high country of East Africa — and discover paradise. With the responsibility of caring for his mother and his sister weighing…

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2. The Happy Valley

Christopher Nicole

First published 1989

4.4(905)

A bond that cannot be broken. In the early years of the twentieth century, the beautiful rolling farmlands of East Africa are nothing short of an earthly paradise for their powerful white colonial settlers. And for no-one does that paradise seem sweeter than for John Barclay,…

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