An unsuccessful attempt to bring a vivid story to life

Sadly, unlike its heroine, Circling The Sun never really takes off

Paula McLain: her account of the life of Beryl Markham fails to take wing. Picture: Nina Sobin

Fiction: Circling The Sun

By Paula McLain

Virago, €20

Reviewed by Anna Carey

More than 70 years ago, Ernest Hemingway wrote a letter to his editor Maxwell Perkins in which he said: “Did you read Beryl Markham’s book? . . . She has written so well, and marvelously well, that I was completely ashamed of myself ...