Paula McClain based her protagonist in Circling the Sun upon the historical figure of Beryl Markham. Although she bears the same name, McClain's Markham barely resembles the intrepid Markham of real life. She is born to her British parents in colonial Kenya. After her mom leaves, young Beryl is left largely on her own because of her alcoholic father. She becomes the charge of her native neighbors who readily teach her their customs and train her to be a warrior. At 16, Beryl marries a man for financial support, but he turns out to be a drunk and a scoundrel. She runs away a couple years later to become a horse trainer. She makes a name for herself, becoming the first licensed woman in Kenya to train horses. Her professional career is hampered by her promiscuous love-life. Desperate for the denied affections of Finch Hatton, she begins an endless series of affairs and marriages, none of which she loves. Eventually she travels to England to leave a disabled baby with one of her mother-in-laws. Upon returning to Kenya, Beryl finds herself once more seeking an escape. She becomes involved with the Kenyan liberation movement and flies planes.
In keeping with McClain's previous novels, Circling the Sun is a romanticized historical drama, the term "historical" being applied loosely. Critical reception for the novel was somewhat harsh. McClain chose such a powerful woman as Markham about whom to write, but she fails to explain how Markham was motivated. Markham fought British colonialism, trained horses, and flew planes for a living. She was the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean without stopping. A female pioneer, she also advocated for women's rights. Although McClain's Markham accomplishes these things as well, she provides no insight as to why. In fact, the character in the novel seems to be kind of a fool, always concerning herself with romance. She doesn't possess the spunk and grit which one would expect of such a person as Markham.
McClain introduces an interesting element in the story when she writes about Markham's obsessive love for Hatton. After Hatton essentially date rapes her, she becomes infatuated with him. He completely ignores her from that day forward, directing his sexually predatory behavior elsewhere. Markham, however, is unable to forget him for the rest of her life. She engages in a long train of self-destructive behavior, including endless affairs, abortions, and general recklessness. After exhausting her sexual fascinations in England, she returns to Kenya to fly planes. She becomes a kind of daredevil, eager to do the impossible. All the while she's trying to escape the initial rejection from Hatton, until the day of his death. She never does put in the hard mental work to make sense of her experience with him. More than likely she's suffering from Stockholm syndrome and certainly PTSD.
