History
John and Valerie Kent float up the Nile
Stationed in Africa
Anne Kent Taylor was born in Ethiopia while her father, a Colonel in the British Army, was on assignment training officers for His Imperial Majesty, Emperor Haile Selassie. The Kent family soon returned to the Aberdare Mountains of Kenya where Anne and her older brother Geoffrey spent their childhood.
Abercrombie & Kent and the Dawn of the Photo Safari
In the 1950s, the Mau Mau fight for independence came quite literally to their doorstep in the Aberdare Mountains. After Kenya’s independence in 1963, the family farm was redistributed to the people of Kenya. Refusing to abandon the country they had come to love, the Kent’s (John, Valerie, Geoffrey and Anne) moved to Nairobi where they started a photographic safari company that specialized in luxury camping expeditions. They named it Abercrombie and Kent. (Abercrombie was chosen for its alphabetical advantage.)
John and Valerie led safaris all across the African continent. Anne worked with her parents as a guide and in the office. From the rocky hills of North Kenya and Ethiopia to the heart of the Congo jungle, the Kent’s pioneered the business of turning remote and inaccessible Africa into a luxury travel destination.
Anne Goes Out on Her Own
At age 17, Anne left Africa for the first time. She worked her way across Europe, Mexico, and the United States before eventually settling down with her husband Jim and raising her two daughters, Marett and Farley, between Montana and Kenya. She freelanced in the travel business until 1988 when she founded A.K. Taylor International. (Read more about why she struck out on her own here.)
Farley's wedding ceremony in Kenya
The Next Generations
Anne’s daughters, Farley and Marett, learned the travel trade “at the knee” of their mother and grandmother, Valerie Kent, a pioneer of safari travel and one of the first women guides in East Africa. Her spirit of adventure lives on.
Farley was born and raised in Montana where her love of epic landscapes, wildlife and the outdoors was cultivated. She attended boarding school at The Lawrenceville School and had a distinguished tennis career at the University of Texas-Austin, where her team won the NCAA Division I National Championship; she was a three-time All American and ranked #1 in the country in doubles.
The 4th Generation on Safari in Kenya
She joined A.K. Taylor International in 2001 and has been an integral part of the company from then on. She specializes in honeymoons, active adventure travel, multi-generational family trips, African safaris, and around-the-world trips.
Farley lives north of Chicago with her husband Stuart (whom she met on safari) and their two children. They return to the Mara frequently – a seasonal migration now in its fourth generation.
She can be reached at farley@aktaylor.com.