This chapter examines Elspeth Huxley’s fictional treatment of the Kenyan Emergency in A Thing to Love. Paying close attention to the relationship between Huxley’s journalism and fictional writing, the chapter foregrounds the extent to which the novel captures her interest in the deeper causes of the Mau Mau insurgency. As the chapter shows, Huxley uses her varied cast of characters to describe the conflicts and tensions experienced within both settler and African communities. However, her attempt at fictionalising an ongoing political conflict co-exists uneasily with her recourse to the tropes and imaginary of horror, associated with an older imperial genre.