Born Wild
The Extraordinary Story of One Man's Passion for Africa
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4.7 • 9 Ratings
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- $4.99
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
Tony Fitzjohn, part missionary, part madman, has been called “one of the world’s most endangered creatures.” An internationally renowned field expert on African wildlife, he is best known for the eighteen years he spent helping Born Free’s George Adamson return more than forty leopards and lions—including the celebrated Christian—to the wild in central Kenya.
Born Wild is the memoir of Fitzjohn’s extraordinary life. It shows how a man driven by an impossibly restless spirit can do almost anything, from being a bouncer in a brothel, to surviving a vicious lion attack, to fighting with the Tanzanian government, to being appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire by the Queen.
A notorious hell-raiser given to scrapes with bandits, evil policemen, and wicked politicians, who has been shot at by poachers and chewed up by lions, Fitzjohn is also a wonderful raconteur. Shenanigans aside, he belongs to that rare species of humans who have sought refuge and meaning in a life truly dedicated to the restoration of the animal kingdom. Many times Tony Fitzjohn has put his life on the line for the cause in which he believes. Born Wild is the story of that passion.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Fitzjohn worked with George Adamson for 17 years at his lion preserve in Kenya (made famous from the 1966 film Born Free) and recounts his unplotted, delightfully quirky, and frequently perilous journey from rogue Englishman to African wildlife conservationist. Placed for adoption at the end of WWII, Fitzjohn grew up in a foster home in working-class North London and was early inspired to go to Africa by devouring Tarzan stories and tales of the Serengeti told by his scouting master. Eventually Fitzjohn was introduced to game warden Adamson in 1971, whose assistant had just been killed by a lion, and Fitzjohn, athletic, hard-drinking, and utterly loyal, worked devotedly with Adamson at their camp at Kora along the Tana River to help captive or orphaned lions return to the wild. Life with the lions, whose personalities Fitzjohn depicts, and other wildlife was simple, charming, yet dangerous. Political upheaval and poaching prompted the demise of the camp; with Adamson's death by bandit ambush in 1989, Fitzjohn moved to the Mkomazi reserve in Tanzania, stocked it with rare black rhinos and wild dogs, and propelled it to national park status. This is a wonderfully engrossing narrative of Fitzjohn's tireless, lifelong work establishing trust with both the wild animals and prickly governments.
