Stanley Hotel, Nairobi film "The Ghost and the Darkness", also found his inspiration while staying at the Stanley. Elspeth Huxley, author of "The Flame Trees of Thika", "The Mottled Lizard", "Red Strangers", and other books, frequented the Stanley Hotel and used it as a setting for several of her works. "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber", a 1936 short story by Ernest Hemingway, takes place at the New Stanley Hotel. In 1947, it was adapted into "The Macomber Affair", a film starring Gregory Peck and Joan Bennett, which was shot at the hotel. Citations Sources Stanley Hotel, Nairobi The Stanley Hotel (currently
The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber are on a big-game safari in generalized Africa. We know that the "gun-bearers" and "personal boys" speak Swahili and sometimes receive illegal lashings, as described by the white, professional hunter and guide, Robert Wilson. Earlier, Francis had panicked when a wounded lion charged him, and Margot mocks Macomber for this act of cowardice. Wilson is critical of Macomber, presented in interior monologue, but outwardly tries to shepherd Macomber toward a more accepted "code" practiced by experienced hunters. This is Francis' thirty-five-year-old "coming of age" story. In flashback, we experience Francis' cowardly run from his wounded and charging lion. We also