An African Love Story - Love, Life and Elephants

Daphne Sheldrick’s absorbing, moving memoir is a tale of two loves. One was David, her second husband, legendary head warden of Tsavo, Kenya’s biggest national park. The other was Tsavo itself, renowned for its lions, elephants, rhinos - and poachers. In the 1950s, Waliangulu bowmen were the chief culprits. But when poaching was brought under control, the elephants multiplied and scientists argued for a cull. David prevented it, but in 1970 a terrible drought killed them in their thousands. Things got worse. Later in the 1970s, Somali bandit gangs fell upon Tsavo, and in 1976 the National Park Service was merged with the corrupt Game Department. David was removed from Tsavo and died of a heart attack the following year. Daphne coped by devoting herself to caring for Tsavo’s animal orphans – baby rhinos and elephants that she raised at her Nairobi nursery before returning them to the wild. Others, notably Elspeth Huxley, have written with more lyricism about growing up in Kenya. But Daphne has painted a vivid picture of an extraordinary life in the bush that will delight everyone who shares her passion for Africa.