vintage safari: true at first light

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the destination/literature combination for this week is ever so slightly less luxurious than last week's cannes, but in no way less glamorous: 1920s safari.  full of colonial adventure, romance, khaki, big-game hunting, flowing mosquito nets floating over four-poster beds in white tents under vast expanses of star-studded ski, kilimanjaro looming in the background.  teddy roosevelt, english aristocracy, and ernest hemingway.  and i believed all was lost after the second world war..

..luckily, i was mistaken.  a friend, equally enthralled as i by all things of pre-war grandeur, most recently introduced me to cottar's safari service.  founded in 1920 by a family inspired by teddy roosevelt's adventures in east africa, cottar's has continued the classic tradition of the glamorous safari ever since {minus the big-game hunting these days}.  

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white tents and brown colonial furniture, persian rugs, flowing mosquito nets and glowing fires, and all of the romance of those old black and whites.  kiera knightly even did a feature for vogue here in 2007, and the 'press page' of the website is absolutement filled with high-profile, endless praise.   

cottar's and its notion of 1920s safari camps brings such novels as out of africa to mind, naturally, but a slightly lesser known tale is that of ernest hemingway in true at first light.  published by one of his sons posthumously, it contains anecdotes of heminway's reign as a safari guide and his time spent there with his fourth wife, hunting and fraternizing with the local tribe, a symbolic struggle with a dangerous lion, laden, of course, with colorful, tragic figures, and his beautifully evoked scenes and subtle romance.  one of his lesser known works, i would recommend it as a most serious hemingway fan, but also as a glimpse into the glamour of an age both past and preserved.  and it may be the next best thing to a proper cottar's safari.

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will true at first light make your summer reading list?  i've just finished age of innocence and am now onto the help to balance out this literary tour de force with something more lighthearted.  what are you reading?

i hope that your weekend is off to the most beautiful start.  although it's still too cool to sunbathe, the sun has finally shone through the london grey.  xx hillary 

p.s. want to channel hemingway/1920s safari style? a charming look for late summer/early autumn:

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