Authors: Paul Spicer
The de Janzés remained in Kenya for three months, a month longer than originally planned. During that time, they met most of the key players in Kenya’s white-settler community. Alice’s charm and good looks captivated many. One of her most important social conquests was Hugh Cholmondeley, the third Baron Delamere, known to everyone as “D.” Thirty years her senior, the baron took a shine to Alice’s beauty and her deep-voiced American drawl. He also liked the fact that she was able to hold her drink, quaffing brandy and soda or pink gin with ease. Acceptance by D counted for a lot in the colonial community of the 1920s. Lord Delamere was the undisputed leader of the Kenyan settlers. He had arrived in Kenya in 1901, plunging his considerable personal wealth and energies into 100,000 acres of land near Njoro and encouraging his aristocratic friends in England to join him. Delamere, like his fellow settlers of all classes, had many setbacks in the beginning, particularly with the cattle he had imported, which quickly caught diseases and died. Over time, he learned to dip his herds to protect them from flies. He also mastered the art of growing wheat, employing a horticulturalist to develop a new variety of grain that would withstand local conditions. He began ranging his sheep on the edge of the Kinangop (a lower ridge of the plateau en route to the Wanjohi Valley), where conditions were clement and where his flocks soon thrived. D’s tireless experimentation in farming often brought him to the brink of bankruptcy, but the wisdom of his experiences, which he shared with the other farmers in the area, is the reason that a colony flourished in the highlands at all. Later, when the settlers needed to defend themselves against the restrictive regulations of colonial officialdom, it was D who led the charge.
So much has been written about the Happy Valley crowd and their penchant for parties that it can come as something of a surprise to discover that most of its members were actually extremely diligent farmers, Joss and Idina included. At the time of Alice’s arrival in Africa, Joss was meeting regularly with leading ranchers and farmers, such as D and Sir Francis Scott, seeking to learn from their long experience. Scott, the second son of the duke of Buccleuch, was another Englishman who was instrumental in establishing effective farming techniques in the highlands. A former Coldstream Guards officer, he had arrived in Kenya with the wave of ex-servicemen settlers arriving after the war, building himself a magnificent home called Deloraine near Nanyuki. Together with D, he was only too delighted to help a fellow old Etonian such as Joss establish himself in the valley.
Alice was getting to know the other farmers in the area. On her morning rides, she came upon a Tudor-style house, Satima Farm, named after one of the Aberdare peaks, just to the south of Slains. The house belonged to Geoffrey Buxton, who farmed the surrounding 2,500 acres. Geoffrey Charles Buxton had been born in Thorpe, Norwich, in 1879. He was a close friend of Denys Finch Hatton, the adventurer who was immortalized by Karen Blixen in
Out of Africa
(1937). Both Buxton and Finch Hatton had attended Eton, like so many of the settlers, Delamere and Joss included. Buxton had first arrived in Kenya in 1910, but when the Great War commenced, he returned to the UK and obtained a commission in the Coldstream Guards in 1916 and was awarded a territorial decoration after being mentioned in dispatches. On his return to Kenya, he devoted himself to farming. In fact, it was Buxton who had first lured Finch Hatton to the area, telling his friend that he had discovered “Shangri La on the equator.” Unlike at Idina's, where the hostess entertained in pajamas, socializing at Buxton’s was much more formal—a blacktie affair, in the style of an English country mansion. Although he later married, at the time of Alice’s arrival in Africa, Geoffrey was still a bachelor, albeit a rather serious one.
Other immediate neighbors included the Honorable David Leslie-Melville, the second son of the earl of Leven and Melville, and his wife, Mary, the granddaughter of Lord Portman. The Leslie-Melvilles were married in 1919 and arrived in Kenya soon afterward, farming five thousand acres. Their house was a broad and rambling affair, decorated in the English fashion with antiques, silver, family portraits, and even a grand piano. Then there were Bill Delap and his wife, “Bubbles,” who owned Rayetta, a small pyrethrum farm. Pyrethrum was a valuable new crop and a natural pesticide grown by many of the farmers in the area, Idina included. Bill was a jealous and difficult man, and his first wife—according to Vi Case—“messed around with the troops.” After he married Bubbles, he built a drawbridge around his house and threatened to shoot unannounced visitors. The Delaps kept themselves to themselves, and the Happy Valley set were evidently perfectly in step with this arrangement.
Thanks to Alice’s friendship with Lord Delamere, the de Janzés were also getting to know the crowd that gathered at the exclusive Muthaiga Club in Nairobi. The club had been founded by a group of settlers who had wanted somewhere to socialize away from the existing Nairobi Club, a place where they were likely to run into government officials, with whom they were often at war. The new club opened on New Year’s Eve, 1913, with D as its first president, and soon gained a loyal and elite membership. Well-bred settlers were drawn like moths to the magnificent Muthaiga, its cellar filled with fine French wines, its well-appointed rooms offering comfort and elegance, along with the opportunity to socialize with friends over an infinite number of cocktails. Race weeks took place twice a year, at Christmas and in midsummer, during which times the Muthaiga overflowed with revelers—balls were held every evening, with members dressed to the nines, and the dancing lasted until dawn. Alice and Frédéric had been made temporary members of Muthaiga soon after their arrival, ensuring that they found themselves at the very center of colonial social life. Full membership would follow by virtue of D’s backing.
For the last two months of the de Janzés’ stay in Kenya, Frédéric hired a Ford car so that they would be able to drive to the Muthaiga and explore the surrounding area without relying on Idina or Joss to chauffeur them around. It was on one of their regular visits to Nairobi that they were introduced to Roy and Margaret Spicer, a couple recently arrived from Ceylon. English-born Roy was serving as the commissioner of police for Kenya. His new wife was American and had a nine-year-old daughter from a previous marriage. Frédéric was delighted to strike up a friendship with the Kenyan head of police, but the strongest bond was between Alice and Margaret. Alice found she had much in common with this well-dressed thirty-two-year-old. Like Alice, Margaret was from the States but had spent time in Europe and spoke fluent French, having been educated in Montreux. Margaret was often invited to stay at Slains, where she kept Alice, Frédéric, Joss, and Idina in fits of laughter with her imitations. Margaret had a talent for mimicry: She would impersonate the people she’d encountered on the boat trip out and the pompous manners of the Nairobi government officials.
It was during visits to Slains that Alice taught Margaret how to play the ukulele. The two women would often entertain Joss, Idina, and their guests after dinner with popular and traditional American songs. Alice and Margaret had complementary voices: Alice had a rather deep and husky contralto voice, and Margaret, who had trained as a soprano in Florence, possessed a higher and sweeter one. The two women would sit together on the descending lawn in front of the house as if on a stage. Guests would drive their cars into a half circle facing them, switching on headlights to illuminate the scene. One of Alice’s and Margaret’s duets was the following folk song from the Deep South:
There is an old log cabin and it’s a beautiful place
In that old log cabin, there is my baby waiting for me.
And it won’t be long, until I hear that song
Ringing in the fields of cotton and I’ll rejoice
When I hear that voice saying Baby
Oh yeah, there is an old log cabin…
They also performed George Gershwin hits, such as “Swanee” and “Oh, Lady Be Good,” as well as duets in French. Such performances became much talked about amongst the settler society of the times, and Alice would be asked to play and sing wherever she went.
It was through Roy and Margaret that the de Janzés first came into contact with the governor of Kenya, Sir Edward Grigg, and his wife, Joan. Roy Spicer had already won the respect of the handsome and commanding governor: Edward Grigg approved of Roy’s impressive service record during World War I—he had been awarded an MC (Military Cross) in France—and his highly effective reorganization of the Kenya police force, especially its African section. Roy’s morale-boosting innovations were much admired and included attention to the officers’ dress and the newly coined Kenya police motto,
Salus Populi
(the Latin motto means “service to the People” and it is still used today, although translated into Swahili). Roy also created cricket and football teams for the officers and developed Kenya’s first mounted police force, all of which helped to give the right impression to the enthusiastic governor. Although the governor’s wife, Joan, had become friends with Margaret, she did not share Margaret’s enthusiasm for Alice. Word had reached Lady Grigg that Alice had a decadent side, and the very prim and proper Joan was insistent that wives had to conduct themselves in a ladylike fashion if they were to be admitted into her circle at Government House. Margaret, however, managed to endear herself to Joan, despite being a divorcée, and was never excluded from official gatherings.
While Alice spent a good deal of time with Margaret, her closest ally in Kenya was Idina. The two had much in common. Although Idina was six years older and lacked Alice’s unimpeachable good looks—the former being known for her trademark weak chin—both women shared a fashionable elegance, an active disrespect for convention, and a passion for the Wanjohi Valley. It soon became clear that they had something else in common—namely, their attraction to Joss. After her arrival in Africa, Alice found herself increasingly attracted to Idina’s handsome husband. For his part, Joss returned the compliment, flirting publicly with Alice at every opportunity. Idina was unperturbed by her husband’s latest infatuation. In fact, she may have even encouraged Joss to set his sights in Alice’s direction. The Hays had always maintained an open relationship, and the heavily pregnant Idina may have felt that at this time Joss should be permitted his affairs. The advantage of Alice was that she would respect Idina’s precedence and would never attempt to rub her nose in it. Alice was someone who got along just as well with women as men, often making friends with the wives of her male friends. In many ways, Alice’s and Idina’s mutual attraction to Joss became a bond between the two women.
We do not know exactly when Joss and Alice first consummated their relationship, but it seems that this happened at some point during Alice’s first visit to Kenya. Although their affair wasn’t openly acknowledged at this point—and neither Joss nor Alice sought to leave their spouses as a result—their on-again, off-again relationship would continue for the next two decades. In hindsight, their liaison has an air of inevitability about it. Alice was unfulfilled in her marriage, looking for excitement and escape: Her relationship with Frédéric was stable but far from passionate. For his part, Joss had always been magnetically attracted to wealthy and beautiful married women. Clandestine encounters between Alice and Joss would have taken place whenever Idina and Frédéric happened to be out at the same time, and the rarity of such opportunities would have only added to the excitement. By all accounts, Joss was an accomplished lover, known for his ability to bring a woman to climax easily, and it is entirely possible that Alice experienced a kind of sexual awakening with him. For his part, Frédéric put a brave face on Alice’s flirtation and subsequent affair with Joss. He was even heard to refer to Joss on more than one occasion as “the boyfriend.” Frédéric had lived with Alice’s moods for such a long time, it seems he was inclined to go along with anything that might make his unpredictable wife a little happier.
It was true that since their arrival in Kenya, Alice’s health had improved enormously. For the first time in years, she was happy—her heavy moods had almost completely lifted. As the African trip began to draw to a close, Alice realized she was dreading her return to Paris and her life there. It was at this juncture that she made up her mind to buy a permanent home in the highlands. Frédéric’s need to appease Alice was such that he agreed to help her purchase land in the Wanjohi Valley. The de Janzés arranged for a meeting with the Leslie-Melvilles and Geoffrey Buxton to talk about purchasing Wanjohi Farm, adjacent to Geoffrey’s property. The acreage was small, only six hundred acres, but could be easily managed and was ideal for growing pyrethrum. Frédéric and Alice would be able to employ the local Kikuyu farmers, who had smallholdings dotted about the area, to plant and harvest the crops. The de Janzés learned that the land was owned by Sir John Frecheville Ramsden, a local builder of settler houses, who was known as “Chops.” Before long, Frédéric was putting wheels in motion to buy Wanjohi Farm from Chops, driving to Nairobi to see Mr. Barratt at the firm of Shapley, Schwarze and Barratt (the Hays’ legal advisers). By the end of 1925, a deal had been struck and Alice began making plans to build a new house on the site. The de Janzés’ future home would be situated about seventy-five yards from the Wanjohi River, facing a bend where a deep pool formed. There was a small manager’s house on the land (still there to this day), which would provide the de Janzés with temporary accommodation while they supervised construction. Although Alice was anxious to start the building work, she would have to wait until the title for the land had been transferred and legal arrangements processed by the lawyers. This would not be completed until June of the following year.