Ivory, Apes & Peacocks

Written by a consummate wordsmith, Alan Root’s enthralling memoir is the best true-life adventure story to come out of Africa for years. The final chapter, which describes Root’s last moments with Joan, I found almost too painful to read (5 star review) – Brian Jackman * Daily Telegraph *
This is an entrancing book. Root is a natural story-teller, roaming East Africa before poachers began to decimate the wildlife. Against the staggering backdrop of East Africa’s landscape and wildlife, the darkness of its problems casts a growing shadow over this book… Luckily, Alan Root’s wonderful films remain, a testimony to the man of whom David Attenborough once said: ‘He made wild-life films grow up’ * Daily Mail *
In a riveting memoir, Root offers far more than a few well-work anecdotes of cute, hand-reared animals who like to sit down to breakfast with you and curl up on the sofa after dinner…a truly compelling book, savage and sparkling by turns – Kathryn Hughes * Mail on Sunday *
Root is aware that his magical life has ‘run parallel with a heartbreaking holocaust, as wildlife conservation has proved to be a disastrous failure’. This wonderful book can’t put it more honestly than that. Not only are the current generation of wildlife film-makers mere pygmies compared to Root, but soon they will not even be able to attempt matching his documentaries because the world he captured has ceased to exist. – Aidan Hartley * Spectator *
If Dame Daphne Sheldrick’s touching and romantic Love, Life, and Elephants has been climbing the bestseller lists in Britain and America, Alan Root’s Ivory, Apes and Peacocks is by far the deeper and more interesting read. The problems that beset Africa’s wildlife - population pressures, poaching, drought and disease - are all part of this story, though balanced here by Mr Root’s sense of fun and adventure * The Economist *
There is a great sense of life lived to the limit here and great personal tragedy. A pioneer on the environment and in film-making, Alan Root does not have a dull word in him. Nature red in tooth and claw * Bookseller *
From English birds to the Cape peacock, from elephants to termites, Alan Root illuminates the lives of animals and the environments they live in with a very special skill. Years of study and observation, however passionately followed, do not always go hand in hand with captivating storytelling. Here they are completely woven together, also revealing his fascinating, touching, and very personal life. And he reminds us at the end that “wild places like the Serengeti will be essential for our spiritual well-being”. Yes, indeed * Virginia McKenna *
Alan Root has for half a century made superb wildlife films so innovative in their photography and script that they set new high standards. Filmmaker, naturalist, and adventurer, Alan Root has written a delightful memoir with the verve of a true raconteur, whether being bitten by a mountain gorilla or flying over Mt. Kilimanjaro in a balloon. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in nature films, wildlife, and Africa – George Schaller
Brave, crazy, hilarious and lucky - the legendary Root completely changed our understanding of East Africa and its wildlife – Nigel Winser, Executive Vice President, The Earthwatch Institute
I have long been an admirer of Alan’s work and of his ground- breaking, outstanding documentaries: and now, in this enthralling, witty, and deeply moving memoir that cannot be put down, he brings back a nostalgia for an early days African wilderness that no longer exists. This book is a must for all who love nature and have vowed to protect, as I have, the few remaining fragments of natural world still untarnished by greed – Kuki Gallmann

Alan Root was born in London in 1937 but moved to Kenya as a young boy. He dropped out of school at sixteen but soon found himself behind the camera. He married Joan Thorpe in 1961 and together they produced an array of award-winning wildlife films including Baobab- Portrait of a Tree, commissioned by David Attenborough, Safari by Balloon, The Year of the Wildebeest and Castles of Clay, which was nominated for an Oscar. Alan won over sixty awards during his career, including an Emmy, three Lifetime Achievement Awards an OBE. Alan Root died in August 2017.

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