No Picnic on Mount 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. It was first published in 1946 in English and 1947 in Italian. The 1994 filmThe Ascent is based on this book.
Synopsis
Detained at P.O.W. Camp 354 near Nanyuki, Kenya, Felice Benuzzi from Trieste, together with two fellow-prisoners Dr. Giovanni Balletto from Genova and Vincenzo Barsotti from Lido di Camaiore, escaped in January 1943 and climbed Mt Kenya with improvised equipment and meagre rations, two of them reaching a point on the north face of the Petit Gendarme, at about 5000 metres, high up the NW ridge. After an eventful 18-day period on the mountain, and to the astonishment of the British camp commandant, the three adventurers broke back into Camp 354. As reward for their exploit, they each received 28 days in solitary confinement, commuted to 7 days by the camp commandant in acknowledgement of their "sporting effort". From the flyleaf of the 1952 William Kimber edition of the book:
Publishing history
Benuzzi, of Italian-Austrian parentage, initially wrote his account in both English and Italian from 1943–1946, while still in P.O.W. camps. The Italian version, with a marginally more detailed text, was first published in 1947 as Fuga sul Kenya – 17 giorni di libertà . The Italian edition has as an Appendix a fuller version of the English Chapter 4, 'The Unknown', a digression that gives background historical information on the mountain. It also includes three sketches in black & white and four maps by Benuzzi, including a map of the peaks area showing his route up the NW ridge. The Italian version was translated into French and published in 1950 as Kenya, ou la Fugue Africaine . The 2nd Italian edition has on the front cover, in colour, a reproduction of Benuzzi's watercolour of the mountain seen through the camp fence. 'Fuga' and 'Fugue' may also carry a secondary meaning, referring to the 'music' of the giant heather described in the book. The French edition helped inspire Roland Truffaut's August 1952 expedition to Mt Kenya, described in From Kenya to Kilimanjaro, during which the home-made crampons and other equipment of Benuzzi and Balletto were retrieved from Hausberg Col. These were later donated, with Benuzzi's permission, to the Musée de La Montagne, Chamonix. The English version was published in February 1952 as No Picnic on Mount Kenya, with the subtitleThe Story of Three P.O.W.s' Escape to Adventure. "No expedition on the mountain was ever a picnic" Vivienne de Watteville had written in her book Speak to the Earth about her 1929 visit to Mount Kenya. Benuzzi's English title, perhaps suggested by this line of de Watteville's, refers to the expression 'It was no picnic', meaning 'It was hard going', but with an ironic allusion to the climbers' meagre P.O.W. rations. There have been at least eighteen English impressions, some published without the subtitle. The Readers Union edition, and the 'concise' version brought out by Longmans and Green in their 'Heritage of Literature Series' for schools, helped popularise the book. The dust-cover of the English 2nd edition gives a 1970s' photograph of Benuzzi, Balletto and Barsotti and biographical updates; the 3rd English edition, updates the biographical information. In 1999 Lyon Press republished the book with the subtitle A Daring Escape, a Perilous Climb. In 2015 MacLehose Press brought out a new edition, with some twenty of Benuzzi's own watercolours from the expedition, two contemporary photos of the Nanyuki POW camp, and a full translation of 'L'ignoto' from the Italian original. In 1953 No Picnic on Mount Kenya was translated into German under the title Gefangen vom Mount Kenia : gefährliche Flucht in ein Bergsteigerabenteuer, and in 2002 a new German edition was released with the new title Flucht ins Abenteuer : 3 Kriegsgefangene besteigen den Mount Kenya. The book has also been translated into Swedish.
About the author
Felice Benuzzi was born in Vienna on 16 November 1910 and grew up in Trieste, doing his early mountaineering in the Julian Alps and Dolomites. He studied law at Rome University and represented Italy as an international swimmer in 1933–35. He married in 1938 and had two daughters, one of whom, Daniela, married American diplomat Alan Ford. Benuzzi entered the Italian Colonial Service in 1938 and served in Italian-occupied Abyssinia, where he was captured by Allied forces when the country was liberated in 1941. He was imprisoned in Kenya. Repatriated in August 1946, he entered the Italian Diplomatic Service in 1948, serving in Paris, Brisbane, Karachi, Canberra, West Berlin, and at the United Nations, before his appointment in 1973 as ambassador in Montevideo. Benuzzi retired to Rome, serving in retirement as Head of the Italian Delegation for the Antarctic. He died in Rome in July 1988. The col between Point Dutton and the Petit Gendarme on Mount Kenya has been named Benuzzi Col in his honour.
