Introduction -- June 20, 2020

January 24, 1941, about 2:30 a.m. local time, Josslyn Hay, Earl of Erroll, found dead in his Buick some miles outside of Nairobi.

Great Britain: preoccupied with surviving the Blitz.

Murder occurred the very day that the campaign was launched in Nairobi to remove Mussolini's army from Abyssinia (Ethiopian Empire, current states of Ethiopia and Eritrea). Joss Erroll, the Military Secretary for the colony, put together the military response.

"Happy Valley set": wiki link here. Not said here, but think the second and third sons of British nobility, due to primogeniture. 1920s - 1940s.

Some of the notable members of the Happy Valley set were: The 3rd Baron Delamere and his son and heir The 4th Baron Delamere; Denys Finch Hatton; Sir Jock Delves Broughton and wife Diana Delves Broughton (Diana, Lady Delamere); The 22nd Earl of Erroll; Lady Idina Sackville; Alice, Countess de Janze (cousin of J. Ogden Armour) and her husband Count Frederic de Janzé.

Joke that wore itself out, said so many times: "Are you married or do you live in Kenya?" -- page 2.

With Erroll's murder and the scandal that followed, the spirit of Happy Valley was broken forever. -- page 2.

Murder: 1941. Author says "Happy Valley" stretched back three decades from Joss' death -- 1941 - 30 =   1911.

James Fox and Cyril Connolly, Sunday Times Magazine. In spring, 1969, decided to write the story for the magazine, 28 years after the event.

Their article: "Christmas at Karen."

Cyril Connolly died in 1974; James Fox, after reading his notebooks on Kenya, was stimulated to take another look.

Many of the male characters in the story, including Lord Erroll, had been contemporaries of his at Eton.

Primogeniture: sons of nobility went to Eton.

Eton College: prep school; male only; 13 - 18; boarding school, 7 days/week; three terms each school year.

Cyril Connolly described Eton in Enemies of Promise, c. 1938.

Eton mentioned in passing, talking about Joss, others wearing the red-ochre Somali shawl.