Born Wild

January 31, 2011
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.