The Ghosts of Happy Valley by Juliet Barnes: book review

The Ghosts of Happy Valley: Searching for the lost world of Africa’s infamous aristocrats (2013) has a title that is both true and misleading. The novel is about Happy Valley – the Wanjohi Valley in Kenya where high-bred colonial Brits took over the fertile plains to farm, but also to live a hedonistic life of all-night parties, romances and affairs, debauchery, and scandalous behaviour. But it is not about the aristocrats of Africa, for it is really only about Kenya – and the few who lived in, or near Wanjohi Valley and Nairobi, or were associated with those who did.

Barnes lives in Kenya, in the Rift Valley, and from March 2000 undertook several visits to the homes of the five-times married, out-to-shock, British socialite and dairy cattle breeder Idina Sackville – written about as The Bolter. Her most noted home was – after her fourth marriage – the mountain ranch called ‘Clouds’ - 8,000 feet above sea level among the Kipipiri forests. It was a grand place in the 1930s, but now 75 years later, the courtyard is crumbling, the grass uncut, roof tiles have fallen off, there is no running water, but plenty of cobwebs and cracks.

Once grand and luxurious homes, whose walls had seen the miscreant behaviour of the rich and famous, they were now dilapidated. But their memories live on. Conversing with the Kenyans who once worked there, and some who now live on the Clouds estate, as well as through the accounts of Europeans who knew of Happy Valley or were related to the original inhabitants of the colonial farms, Barnes pieces together what life may have been like when the homes were new and opulent.

Barnes also tries to add an account of people’s views on the 1941 mysterious murder of Joss Hay, Idina’s third husband, but he had so many affairs and lovers that it is impossible to say who loved him and who didn’t. Everyone she questioned insisted that they knew who killed him, yet they had different answers. Jilted lovers, an irrational husband, a betrayed friend, disgruntled servants, and even the British government were all implicated in the murder of the 22^nd Earl of Erroll. “It is highly probable that with superior numbers of Italian troops to the north of the British colony, and the British invasion of Somaliland imminent, it would have been considered too risky to allow Erroll to continue to be so deeply involved in colonial politics … and certain secrets he might have known …”

She writes, “I thought about how life in Kenya seems to involve so many tragedies … yet many white farmers and their descendants stayed on because of that special something about the country that is not easy to explain: a curious but powerful mix of intangible qualities – including a wonderful climate, stunning scenery, unlimited space and freedom, a thrilling lifestyle … and cheap labour. And thus they built homes … in a land that wasn’t truly theirs and would one day be handed back to the Africans, breaking many settlers’ hearts when they had to leave.” Back in England, people were described as “dull and grey” strangers in comparison with the lively set in safari suits and silk gowns in Kenya where everyone knew everyone and their little secrets. Yet the secret of Joss Hay’s murder remains just that.

Without the intrigue and intense descriptive narratives of other books about the Happy Valley aristocrats, Idina Sackville and her scandals, and the shooting of Joss Hay, Barnes’ novel, The Ghosts of Happy Valley, is more whimsical and wistful, reminiscent of bygone days – where all that is left are dreams and haunted houses.