THE SAFARI SPECIALIST
As an avid reader my 'Africa Library' (above) is always growing. I particularly love to get lost in autobiographies of the pioneers and early researchers from times past when East Africa was still so fresh and wild and cut off from the world. The famous names of Louis Leakey, Bernhard Grizmek,, Karen Blixen, Beryl Markham, the daring lives of the Finch-Hattons and Douglas-Hamiltons and the great lady heroes of conservation Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey; Daphne Sheldrick and their tales of adventure and discovery in a more innocent time and place.
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I have included here all my recommendations (to date) of books I have enjoyed, own and use.
Anyone living locally to me is very welcome to borrow from my collection.
For others I have included links to buy on Amazon.
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Just click the by each book ….. happy reading!
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Autobiographies/Biographies
Love, Life and Elephants
Dame Daphne Sheldrick
An incredible lady and founder of the elephant orphanage outside Nairobi, Kenya, David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. In the book she tells her story from being a young child growing up as a member of a pioneering farming family in Kenya and follows her life and love of animals and her one great love David Sheldrick …. amazing story by an inspirational lady
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…… more info
In the Shadow of Man
Dr Jane Goodall …… more info
Jane Goodall tells her unique and inspiring story of how a young and inexperienced girl travelled to East Africa and embarked on what was to become the most incredible adventure living by herself in the remote forests on the shores of Lake Tanganyika; ' Day after day in the sun and the wind and the rain I climbed into the hills …. into a magic world that no human had explored before - the world of the wild chimpanzees."
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Other great books by Jane Goodall
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Reason for Hope - A Spiritual Journey …….. more info
Serengeti Shall Not Die
Bernhard & Michael Grizmek
In December 1957 Bernhard Grzimek, director of the Frankfurt Zoo and his son Michael embarked in a small, single engine plane to fly from Germany to the Serengeti and undertake the first aerial survey and record of the Great Migration. The book details fascinating details and anecdotes about the father and son's journey to and time spent in Serengeti and from which only one would sadly survive.
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…… more info
West with the Night
Beryl Markham
The most beautifully written autobiography of Beryl Marham, a most remarkable woman raised in Kenya at the beginning of the century and a contemporary of Karen Blixen. The first female pilot license holder in Africa, Markham's life is an extraordinary example of "no horizon is so far that you cannot get above it or beyond it."
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Gorillas in the Mist
Dian Fossey
The Elephant Whisperer
Lawrence Anthony
….more info