Who is Beryl Markham (maiden name Clutterbuck)?

Beryl is the story's main character. She's a strong woman who becomes the first female racehorse trainer in Kenya and the first woman to make a solo flight across the Atlantic from east to west. At the age of 4 her mother abandons her and this action serves to shape her life in many ways.

When she realizes that her mother has gone for good her farther consoles her as best as he can and then sets her on her own two feet. That, in addition to the fact that she spent her early years learning how to hunt with African boys training to be warriors, sets her on a path of practicing the art of survival. She marries her first husband, Jock, not out of love, but because she saw him as her best option when her father announces that he is leaving and she knows that Emma is going with him. She later accepts Frank as a sponsor. She goes to England with Mansfield because the alternative meant possibly losing the farm and having to raise a child alone. Finally, after her actions have disastrous results, she shows up on the doorsteps of friends whom she has a pretty good idea will take her in. This could have been a trait she inherited from her mother, who had no problem asking Beryl to find a place for her and her half brothers to live when she returns after years of not contacting her at all.