Book Recommendations

[WAYNE DAVIES]

Hi Pete
I can see what your saying and to a certain extent I like that, but he loses me after a while and I want to get to the hunting part.
Probably just me having a short attention span (or too thick)
I'll give it another chance maybe on a wet day.

Wayne

 

[shakari]

How about 'The Hunter and the Go Away Bird' by Stevie Smith?

It's a hunting book with a difference. Stevie Smith was one of the 'old school' of East African PHs and his book tells his story, including the cock ups, with a great deal of humour and I promise, you'll be laughing your head off as you read.

Sadly, 'Uncle Stevie' as he was known to all his friends and colleagues in the hunting industry died soon after the book was published, but I for one will never forget him.

 

[paul k]

with a great deal of humour and I promise, you'll be laughing your head off as you read.

There was one story in Hunter by J.A. Hunter that always makes me laugh. It was about a rhino that charged one of his bearers and ran along behind him prodding his backside with its horn as if he was having a bit of fun and never intended any harm. I'm not sure that the bearer would have seen the funny side at the time but I bet the others were smiling!

 

[Stayangry]

Craig Boddington's "The African Experience" is good - it's available in book or DVD form, though I prefer the former as Mr Boddington's presentation style does not appeal, despite his excellent writing.

 

[Stayangry]

PS: Beware: Once you have been hunting in Africa, you will always want to go back. It's an addiction as expensive as heroin. My wife doesn't know it but I have a secret Africa bank account for just this reason.

 

[Heym SR20]

Not hunting books per se but also try Story Like the Wind by Lawrence Van Der Post - some really good hunting bits in there.

Also Wilbur Smiths have all got good hunting bits in them - I know they are not brilliant literature - but for pure escapism can quite happily read them from cover to cover in one sitting.

I used to have a copy of "The Game Rangers Handbook" - very practical advice on all aspects of being an african game warden with chapters on how to deal with everything from building bush roads, hydralic water pumps to dealing with rogue elephants.

Kenya Housewifes Cookbook from the good old colonial days - recipe on how to cook a Rhino!

And as a Cub Scout I got my reading badge for reading Maneaters of Kumaon.

As Stayangrey said once you have been to Africa you can't get it out of the system - Its even worse if you were born in the African bush and earliest memories are of the bush and game wardens and following your father through the bush on the farm shooting guinae fowl or being told you were too young to go out after Eland - at aged four you are perfectly old enough!

 

[The Mole]

'Horn of the Hunter' by Ruark is essential reading. Trust me.

Followed closely by anything by Corbett. Even when writing of non-hunting Indian subjects, his love of the country and its people shines through.

 

[bwana]

Try www.stalkersuk.co.uk they have books and DVDs on hunting and are adding to them all the time