Escape to Mt. Kenya
N@ PICNIC ON MOUNT KENYA, a BBC feature based on the book by Felice Benuzzi, was adapted for radio and produced by’ Arthur ~Swinson. During the last war Benuzzi was taken prisoner in Africa by the British and sent to the Nanyuki prisoner-of-war camp at the base of Mount Kenya. In January, 1943, he escaped with two fellow prisoners, a doctor and a -sailor, with the fantastic idea of attempting to climb the formidable 17,000-ft. Mount Kenya, one of the highest mountains of Africa. With negligible equipment and experience and their only map a crude drawing of the mountain on the label of a tin, it is.no wonder that a professional mountaineer, a fellow prisoner of Benuzzi’s, condemned the project as mad and impossible. The adventures of the three escapees in the dense jungle and high on the mountain make what is surely one of the most unusual stories of the Second World War, a story that ends as preposterously as it started-with Benuzzi and ‘his companions breaking into the P.O.W. camp from which they had escaped a few weeks earlier. Benuzzi’s decision to climb Mount Kenya was prompted by the desire to break the tedium of camp life, that this desire was amply fulfilled is ,evident in this dramatised version of his book. No Picnic on Mount Kenya will be broadcast from the ZB stations at 9.35 p.m. on Sunday, April 22.
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19560413.2.44.1
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
New Zealand Listener, Volume 34, Issue 871, 13 April 1956, Page 23
Word count
Tapeke kupu
237Escape to Mt. Kenya New Zealand Listener, Volume 34, Issue 871, 13 April 1956, Page 23
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Material in this publication is protected by copyright.
Are Media Limited has granted permission to the National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa to develop and maintain this content online. You can search, browse, print and download for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Are Media Limited for any other use.
Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
Copyright in the Denis Glover serial Hot Water Sailor published in 1959 is owned by Pia Glover. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this serial and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the Listener. You can search, browse, and print this serial for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Pia Glover for any other use.
Log in