Stephen Mills Books

The History Of Muthaiga Country Club: 1913-1963 by Stephen Mills & Brian Yonge (2006) is an illustrated history of the Muthaiga Club, Nairobi, frequented by the early landowners and settlers, minor aristocrats, hunters, sportsmen and women, adventurers and other miscellaneous colourful characters.

The Norfolk: The Hotel That Built A Nation by Stephen Mills (2011) "The Norfolk, with its cool resting rooms and hot and cold baths, was civilization in the bush. With nothing in front of it except the papyrus swamp with the frogs (and sometimes the lions) and nothing behind it but barren, open land, the white railings of the hotel perimeter spelt civilization and comfort for those early settlers and sportsmen who would start to build the nation."

A Railway To Nowhere: The Building Of The Lunatic Line 1896-1901 by Stephen Mills (2012) provides a well-researched account of the construction of the railway in the early years of its operation. There is no doubt that the construction of the railway was a triumph of human endeavour and resolution over the most daunting obstacles and setbacks. The book highlights the inventiveness and skill of surveyor engineers when tackling exceptional professional challenges and the hardiness shown by the working gangs, of all races, in carrying on under adverse conditions of climate and terrain.

Muthaiga: The First One Hundred Years by Stephen Mills & Yoyo Vetch (2013) is a centenary commemoration, in a scrapbook style, of the Club's earliest days through to post-indendence days. There accounts from the settler farmers, the gentry and pioneers, including Karen Blixen, Dennis Finch Hatton and Joss Errol, royalty, film stars and eccentrics. The book contains numerous reproductions of Kenya related memorabilia such as posters, timetables, hotel menus, Uganda railway tickets, etc, in clear plastic pockets.

Dreams, Schemes & Flying Machines: 100 Years Of Flight, East Africa 1909-2009 by Stephen Mills (2009) tracks the evolution of aviation in East Africa starting with the first gas balloon ascent in Nairobi, the World War I flying machines in combat in German East Africa to the early settlers taking to the skies in open-cockpits in aircraft held together with wood, glue and nails. In the 1930s, commercial aviation in East Africa started with Wilson Airways, pioneered by Florrie Wilson through to the regional scheduled carrier, East African Airways.

Nairobi Then And Now by Stephen & Bhavna Mills (2013) was published on the occasion of Kenya's 50th anniversary of independence. It is the story of a city which arose where once the explorers, hunters, missionaries, settlers and administrators pitched their camps on the plains inhabited only by herds of game.

Page Updated: June 2022