No Picnic on Mount Kenya

No Picnic on Mount Kenya
1953 First Edition USA
Author(s)	Felice Benuzzi
Original title	Fuga sul Kenya
Language	English
Genre(s)	Narrative history
Media type	Hardback and Paperback
Pages	239

This image of Mount Kenya on an Oxo tin inspired the adventure that the book describes.^[1]

No Picnic on Mount Kenya (Italian: Fuga sul Kenya), by Felice Benuzzi is a mountaineering classic recounting the 1943 attempt of three escaped Italian prisoners of war to reach the summit of Mount Kenya.^[2][1] It was first published in 1946 in English and 1948 in Italian.^[3][4] The 1994 film The Ascent is based on this book.^[5]

Plot summary

Detained at P.O.W. Camp 354 near Nanyuki, Kenya, Felice Benuzzi, together with Dr. Giovanni Balletto and Enzo Barsotti, escaped in January 1943 and climbed Mt Kenya with improvised equipment and sparse rations, two of them reaching the Grand Gendarme high up the NW ridge. After an eventful 18-day period on the mountain, and to the astonishment of the British commander, the three adventurers broke back into Camp 354. As reward for their exploit, they each received 28 days in solitary confinement.

From the flyleaf of the 1952 William Kimber edition of the book: "One of the most unusual adventures of the war years has now been written by the man who led it, and who has the ability to tell his story with the accuracy and vividness that compels the readers to live through it with him. Felice Benuzzi was a P.O.W. in a British Camp facing Mount Kenya (5,199 m - 17,058 ft). The depressing tedium of camp life and the fascination of the mountain combined to inspire him with a plan. He first put the prospect of escaping to climb it to a fellow prisoner who was a professional mountaineer. The expert told him that the idea was mad, that they would need six months' training on first-class food and porters to carry equipment to a base camp. But Benuzzi was not to be put off. Eventually he got two others to conspire with him, a doctor and a sailor. Surreptitiously they improvised scant equipment and saved what food they could from rations. Their only 'map' of the mountain was a sketch of it on the label of an Oxo tin.

"And then they escaped, and went to climb the mountain. The sailor was ill immediately after breakout but decided to carry on. The lower reaches of Kenya are jungle and forest infested with big game. They were unarmed, and their encounters with the animals are some of the most exciting passages in the story. But Benuzzi writes with a simplicity and vigour that take you with him every yard of the way. At the foot of the highest peak the sailor was too ill to go further, and Benuzzi and the doctor wend forward to the climax of their adventure. Their way back, was as hazardous as the ascent, and the tension never relaxes until they at last break back into the P.O.W. camp from which they had escaped and give themselves up to the British Commandant."

Editions

The book was initially written in English, despite Benuzzi being Italian. It was translated into Italian and first published in 1947 as Fuga sul Kenya - 17 giorni di liberta ^[3] (L'Eroica, Milano; 2nd edition, Tamari, Bologna, 1966; illustrated); and was translated into French and published in 1950 as Kenya, ou la Fugue Africaine (Arthaud, Paris). The French edition inspired Roland Truffaut's 1952 ascent of Mt Kenya, described in From Kenya to Kilimanjaro (London 1957), during which the home-made crampons and equipment of Benuzzi and Balletto were retrieved from Hausberg Col (they were later donated to the Mountain Club of Kenya). The English version was published in 1952 as No Picnic on Mount Kenya (William Kimber, London), with the subtitle The Story of Three P.O.W.s' Escape to Adventure.^[3][6] In total there have been at least 18 English editions, some published without the subtitle.^[4] An abridged version, brought out by Longmans and Green in their Heritage of Literature Series (1960), popularised the book in schools. The dust-cover of the 1974 English edition (Kimber) gives a 1970s' photograph of Benuzzi, Balletto and Barsotti and biographical updates. In 1999 Lyon Press published the book again with the subtitle A Daring Escape, a Perilous Climb.^[4] In 1953 No Picnic on Mount Kenya was translated into German under the title Gefangen vom Mount Kenia : gefährliche Flucht in ein Bergsteigerabenteuer^[7], and in 2002 a new German edition was released with the new title Flucht ins Abenteuer : 3 Kriegsgefangene besteigen den Mount Kenya.^[7] Benuzzi died in July 1988 (Il Tempo, 11.7.88).

Adaptations

In 1953 an episode of Robert Montgomery Presents was based on an adaptation of this book starring George Chandler.^[8] A film adaptation The Ascent was made in 1994. The screenplay was written by David Wiltse and the filming directed by Donald Shebib.^[5]

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Benuzzi, Felice (2005). No Picnic on Mount Kenya: A Daring Escape, a Perilous Climb. The Lyons Press. ISBN 1-59228-724-7. 
2. ^ Matthew Power. "Escape to Mount Kenya", National Geographic Adventure Magazine
3. ^ ^{a b c} "Fuga sul Kenya" (in Italian). Archived from the original on 2007-01-15. http://web.archive.org/web/20070115054147/http://www.eneafiorentini.it/irecelib/irec01.html. Retrieved 2008-03-03. 
4. ^ ^{a b c} WorldCat. "No Picnic on Mount Kenya". http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1526914&tab=editions. Retrieved 2008-03-03. 
5. ^ ^{a b} Internet Movie Database. "The Ascent (1994)". http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109157/. Retrieved 2008-03-03. 
6. ^ Benuzzi, Felice (1952). No Picnic on Mount Kenya: The Story of Three P.O.W.s' Escape to Adventure. London: William Kimber and CO., Limited. 
7. ^ ^{a b} WorldCat. "Flucht ins Abenteuer : 3 Kriegsgefangene besteigen den Mount Kenya". http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/73251500?tab=editions. Retrieved 2008-03-03. 
8. ^ Internet Movie Database. ""Robert Montgomery Presents" No Picnic at Mt. Kenya (1953)". http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0687456/. Retrieved 2008-03-02.