No Picnic on Mount Kenya: A Daring Escape, A Perilous Climb [Paperback]

Felice Benuzzi (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 1999

In No Picnic on Mount Kenya, Felice Benuzzi recounts one of the most bizarre and daring adventures of this century. In 1943, Benuzzi and two fellow Italian prisoners of war escaped from a British camp in equatorial East Africa with one goal--to climb the seventeen-thousand-foot Mount Kenya. Filled with suspense and humor, it is an extraordinary story that has earned its place as a masterpiece.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Ethiopia, 1941. Felice Benuzzi was a junior officer in the Italian Colonial Service, stationed in Addis Ababa, when the British thwarted Mussolini's ambition to build a colonial empire in East Africa. Benuzzi, along with thousands of other Italians, was captured and interned in a POW camp near the foot of Mount Kenya, where he and his countrymen languished indefinitely, waiting out the war and the desperate boredom, passivity, and isolation of prison life. "In order to break the monotony," he writes, "one had only to start taking risks again." But the isolation of the camp precluded the possibility of escape to a neutral country: "I thought, then at least I shall stage a break in this awful travesty of life. I shall try to get out, climb Mount Kenya and return here." So begins No Picnic on Mount Kenya, a first-class adventure story full of courage, humor, and exquisite detail.

Benuzzi and two fellow prisoners spent six months secretly hoarding food; sewing clothing, shoes, and tents; and scavenging for scrap metal to hammer into ice axes and crampons. After escaping, they braved the multiple risks of capture, wild animals (including elephants and rhinoceros), starvation, frigid weather, and some of the most challenging climbing conditions in Africa. The men ascended 16,300 feet to Mount Kenya's Point Lenana, hoisted a homemade flag, and then returned to the misery of the camp. Benuzzi and his comrades never cared that their freedom was fleeting: they climbed Mount Kenya to reaffirm their humanity in the face of a barbaric world war. The gallantry of this gesture sets No Picnic apart from typical mountaineering stories of risk and self reliance. --Svenja Soldovieri

From The New Yorker

A most extraordinary and well-written prisoner-of-war and escape story.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 248 pages
• Publisher: Lyons Press; 1st edition (April 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1558218769
• ISBN-13: 978-1558218765
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,037,505 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #74 in Books > Travel > Africa > Kenya
  • #98 in Books > History > Military > Prisoners of War

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What a story!, April 4, 2002

By 

Annalivia (Fairfax, VA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: No Picnic on Mount Kenya: A Daring Escape, A Perilous Climb (Paperback)

I just needed to comment that the author is my grandfather, and I am very proud of both him and his work.
He was - apart from his job as a diplomat - a passionate Alpinist. He loved mountains. It was not only to relieve the boredom of POW life that he and his two friends made the climb, it was also because they fell in love with Mt Kenya the first time the clouds finally cleared and they saw it...
He spent a large portion of his life working to protect Antartica from development and other human intrusions.
He was a great man, and he wrote a wonderful book. Look for an upcoming T.V. documentary on their climb; it should be interesting.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Fascinating and inspiring tale..., December 23, 2008

By 

Doyle Hodges (Alexandria, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: No Picnic on Mount Kenya: A Daring Escape, A Perilous Climb (Paperback)

I first borrowed a copy of this wonderful non-fiction book from a friend of mine 15 years ago. I have since bought several more and given as gifts.

On the surface, this is a great tale: Benuzzi and several of his friends who were involved in the administration of Italian Ethiopia find themselves in POW camp in the shadow of Mt. Kenya during the early years of WWII. Bored with camp life, and equipped with an image of Mt. Kenya on the label of a tinned beef can for a map, they scrimp and hoard materials to make mountaineering supplies and break out of the camp in order to climb the mountain.

While the story is fascinating on its surface, is also has a deeper side: these young men engaged in incredibly dangerous activities, ranging from escaping a POW camp to technical climbing without adequate gear. They were motivated not by a thirst for fame or the adrenaline-junkie motivations we're familiar with from various X-games sports. Instead, they did it for the good of their soul.

Benuzzi writes from the safe remove of old age, which imparts wisdom to his writing, but he does not lose the urgency or energy of his exploits as a young man.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Real world fantasy!, June 4, 1998

By 

Jeff Tiller ([e-mail]) (Boone, North Carolina) - See all my reviews

This review is from: No picnic on Mount Kenya (Hardcover)

No Picnic on Mount Kenya by Felice Benuzzi. This real world tale of adventure and danger to escape the doldrums of life as prisoners of war boggles the mind. Why would three ill-fed, poorly equipped, insufficiently trained, and uninformed Italian prisoners of war escape from their British camp, leaving behind a note saying they would return in two weeks? Encountering bull elephants and real or imagined leopards and rhinos, they slip and slide with hand-built iceaxes and crampons and overburdened backpacks up the slopes of Africa's second tallest mountain. Gives you a sense of wonder about the human animal.