Tales of Africa in ex-teacher's work

In A Mosquito On My Nose, Vivien Davies, who taught at Bispham Endowed School in the mid 60s, tells the stories of her two years in East Africa, including working and living in Nairobi, Kenya.

She and her husband Bill set sail for Africa on their wedding day, in 1969.

Vivien – whose surname was Jones when she taught at Bispham, between 1964 and 1969 – said: “I met Bill at the Lancastria Hotel on the Promenade, in Blackpool, and he had already applied for a job in Kenya working with local industries and paid by the British Government.

“We got engaged a few months later and after that he heard he had got the job in Kenya. We got married at Bispham Parish Church and had our reception at the Imperial Hotel.

“Then we left on the train for London.

“From London, we went on the Orient Express to Venice, where we boarded an Italian ship The Asia to sail to Mombasa – which took more than three weeks as the Suez was closed.

“We lived for over two years in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. Finally, we spent many weeks driving from Nairobi to Cape Town with our baby daughter.

“My husband was an engineer working with new industry, in Kenya and I taught in a local school.

“My book tells the story of our life in Nairobi and the culture shock we had living among the local Kenyans.

“The stories are of the amusing and often unbelievable things, which happened to us every day in Nairobi.”

Among the couple’s adventures on their journey to Cape Town – a route known as Hell Run – were encounters with monkeys, running out of gas in a remote area, and meeting many Massai.

You can find Vivien’s book on amazon.co.uk