NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - "A stirring tale of a rare bond formed
between humans and an animal."--Time
Two men. One baby lion. What could go wrong?
A Lion Called Christian tells the remarkable story of how Anthony
"Ace" Bourke and John Rendall, visitors to London from Australia in
1969, bought a boisterous lion cub in the pet department of Harrods. For
several months, the three of them shared a flat above a furniture shop
on London's King's Road, where the charismatic and intelligent Christian
quickly became a local celebrity, cruising the streets in the back of a
Bentley, popping in for lunch at a local restaurant, even posing for a
fashion advertisement. But the lion cub was growing up--fast--and soon
even the walled church garden where he went for exercise wasn't large
enough for him. How could Ace and John avoid having to send Christian to
a zoo for the rest of his life?
A coincidental meeting with English actors Virginia McKenna and Bill
Travers, stars of the hit film Born Free, led to Christian being flown
to Kenya and placed under the expert care of the "father of lions"
George Adamson. Incredibly, when Ace and John returned to Kenya to see
Christian a year later, they received a loving welcome from their lion,
who was by then fully integrated into Africa and a life with other
lions. A video of this reunion has become a YouTube classic.
Originally published in 1971, and now fully revised and updated with
more than 50 photographs of Christian from cuddly cub in London to
magnificent lion in Africa, A Lion Called Christian is a touching and
uplifting true story of an indelible human-animal bond. It is destined
to become one of the great classics of animal literature.
