Wednesday 11 June 2008

White Hunters:The Golden Age of African Safaris



White Hunters:The Golden Age of African SafarisBy Brian Herne
List Price:
$18.00
Price:
$12.24
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Product Description
East Africa affects our imagination like few other places: The sight of a charging rhino goes directly to the heart; the limitless landscape of bony highlands, desert, and mountain is, as Isak Dinesen wrote, of "unequalled nobility." White Hunters is the story of seventy years of African adventure, danger, and romance. It re-creates the legary big-game safaris led by Selous and Bell and the daring ventures of early hunters into unexplored territories, and brings to life such romantic figures as Cape-to-Cairo Grogan, who walked 4,000 miles for the love of a woman, and Dinesen's dashing lover, Denys Finch. Witnesses to the richest wildlife spectacle on the earth, these hunters were the first conservationists. Hard-drinking, infatuated with risk, and careless in love, they inspired Hemingway's stories and movies with Clark Gable and Gregory Peck.


Customer Reviews
Special This was a book. It was received within two days in excellent condition. We are are very pleased with the service and merchandise.
White Hunter by By Brian Herne This reasonably price book by Brian Herne about African hunting adventures is very interesting reading. The book is an excellent casual read because it is laid out in chapters which are independent of each other; the advantage being that one can pick up the book, open it to any chapter and read an action packed adventure without having to read previous chapters. The conclusion to the book is a rebuff to anti-hunters. Big game decimation is not caused by hunting,but by destruction, poaching, civil war and human population explosion. A GOOD BOOK!!
A Non - Hunter Review I loved this book and I've never even hunted in my life. It is a fascinating picture of a time which is now gone forever. It's not just a list of hunters and how many animals they killed, although that is a big part of it. There is also a lot of interesting background on the society of the East African colonies at that time. Ironically, after initial excessive hunting, it was the White Hunters who did most to protect the wildlife of East Africa. After independence, rapacious governments made short work of what had been carefully nurtured wildlife populations. If you liked this book I'd also recommend "A Certain Curve of Horn: The Hundred Year Quest for the Giant Sable Antelope of Angola" and Martin Meredith's "The Fate of Africa". My only complaints about this book are the paucity of photographs; I would have liked to see a lot more photographs. Secondly, this is a book almost specifically about East Africa, especially Kenya and Tanzania. Finally the photo of Biran Herne on the dust jacket must be about 30 years old!!!

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