The Fannin Papers - Softcover

Judy Aldrick lived in Mombasa for 22 years and was a founder member of the Friends of Fort Jesus. She has written widely on coastal history, art and architecture and was involved in the conservation program for Old Town Mombasa. She now lives in Kent in the United Kingdom.

A Most Felicitous Combination The Fannin Papers: Long-hidden Records of Colonial Kenya by Judy Aldrick published by Old Africa Books, Kijabe (Kenya) 2010 Reviewed by Cynthia Salvadori Back in 1991, Judy Aldrick, a historian resident in Mombasa, went to visit Edward Rodwell, the popular and by then elderly Coast journalist, not for the first time, at his home overlooking in Mtwapa Creek seeking some information from that amazing mine. When they had finished discussing whatever it was, Rodwell told her to pull out a drawer. In it were 25 large brown envelopes that had been lying there for over twenty years. "See, there are the Fannin Papers . . . why don't you see if you can write anything from them." She has - a fascinating book. It has been a most fortuitous combination of subject and biographer. As Aldrick read through the papers she found herself meeting a fascinating woman who, like herself, had lived in Mombasa much of her life but starting more than half a century earlier. Mrs Fannin, or Katherine Trood as she then was, had come to Mombasa in 1926, married a surveyor working there and lived there most of the rest of her life, which came to a tragic end in 1970. Aldrick had come to Mombasa in 1982 (already married); by 1991 she had lived in Mombasa nearly ten years, was a pillar of Friends of Fort Jesus, actively involved in efforts to conserve Old Town, well integrated into Mombasa s cosmopolitan society. Rodwell knew what he was doing when he turned the Fannin Papers over to her... Aldrick has managed to fill in the many gaps in Mrs Fannin's life (she would not appreciate being called her by her first name), from her unremarkable birth in India in 1902 through her schooling in Europe and then her varied jobs, ranging from local secretarial to international spying. Equally importantly, Aldrick has filled in the social and political background so The Fannin Papers are truly, as the subtitle says, Long-hidden records of Colonial Kenya even though they also cover her two trips through Italian East Africa and her wartime work in Accra, Cairo and London. Insofar as possible, Aldrick wisely allows Mrs Fannin to speak for herself, using her own reports, her newspaper articles and letters and the texts of her radio broadcasts. Mrs Fannin was extremely observant, had an excellent memory and over the years developed a flair for accurate reporting on the one hand and light-hearted entertaining writing on the other bolstered by outspokenly serious letters to various publications... Katharine Fannin's character as a courageous, outspoken, principled professional woman has been restored by Aldrick's carefully researched biography which is sympathetic without being sycophantic, and puts her life in remarkably clear historical perspective. And it is very readable, with nice flashes of humour. All source material is well documented in the endnotes (and as the notes are numbered sequentially for the book as a whole, rather than chapter by chapter, it is easy to find the note, or vice-versa the number in the text). And the book ends, as any respectable book must, with a decent index. --Old Africa magazine

The Fannin Papers by Judith Aldrick Reviewed by Marlene Reid The early chapters of this biography of the life of Katharine Fannin describe in delightful detail Katharine's life in Mombasa and Nairobi from 1926 until 1929 when she married Charles Fannin. Accounts of adventurous trips and camping safaris make present day safaris sound extremely tame. This is a unique invaluable record of the times with descriptions of Malindi, Mombasa Old Town, Dar es Salaam, Zanzibar and Tanga... Married to Charles and living in Mombasa she involved herself in a charity that helped destitute settlers and helped to found an almshouse in Majengo, for destitute elderly Africans who since the end of the slave trade had ceased to be under the patronage of their owners and were living on the streets. She was also instrumental in founding the K.S.P.C.A... Katharine spent eighteen days driving though Italian Somaliland, Abyssinia and Eritrea in 1938 on her way to England and made a return trip in Feb 1939 as an unofficial spy for the British. Katharine called it, "The adventure of a lifetime!" Armed with an expensive cine camera she managed to photograph places of interest, taking stock of military installations and equipment. She dared not write anything down but could only rely on her excellent memory. On arrival in Britain she went to her Barclays Bank, requested a typewriter and typed out all her information before presenting it to the Foreign Office... After the war Charles retired and the Fannins returned to Mombasa where Katharine now began to indulge her love of cats and exercised her passion for outspoken journalism and large scale entertaining...She was Coast correspondent of the Kenya Weekly News keeping readers abreast of Coastal events for several years... Charles Fannin died in 1960 leaving Katharine bereft and financially strapped, becoming more eccentric with cats now numbering over 70... Judy Aldrick has done a wonderful job in recreating the life of Katharine Fannin with sensitivity, portraying her character in all its nuances from the naïve girl to the raving eccentric living in abject poverty in Mombasa with her cats. --Coastweek newspaper