Lightning Bird: The Story of One Man's Journey into Africa's Past (A Touchstone book) [Paperback]

Lyall Watson (Author)

Book Description

Series: A Touchstone book | Publication Date: October 1983

African adventure of a lone Englishman survived unarmed in the African jungle and was instructed in the secrets of a witch doctor

Product Details

• Paperback: 241 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (Paper) (October 1983)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671473611
• ISBN-13: 978-0671473617
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,014,299 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Gripping account of cultural interactions between two worlds, February 10, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Lightning Bird: The Story of One Man's Journey into Africa's Past (A Touchstone book) (Paperback)

This is a vivid account of the interactions between a very unusual young Englishman, Adrian Boshier, and a culture basically unchanged since it was first described over a century ago by Livingston and Selous. It is a true story of Boshier's struggle with himself and survival in a dangerous land, and of the search, seemingly directed at times by supernatural events, that lead, before his death at age thirty-nine, to discoveries that have helped both rewrite Stone Age history and give us a poetic insight into the dignity of the Stone Age mind. It is the story of an adventure of the human spirit... of a man, magic and culture of the real Africa. I cannot remember when I have so enjoyed or felt bound to the fate of an individual more than in this beautifully written story.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars magical anthropological adventure, August 12, 2003

By 

Savanna Reid (Las Vegas, Nevada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lightning Bird: The Story of One Man's Journey into Africa's Past (A Touchstone book) (Paperback)

Adrian Boshier set out into the semi-wilds of rural southern Africa as a teenager, with an encyclopedic knowledge of the local flora and fauna and a determination to escape from social contingency by foraging. As an escape attempt, his expedition failed - what he had learned from books proved inadequate in the field and he quickly began to starve. The generosity of Swazi strangers, who laid out food in remote places once they realized that he would not approach them for help, kept him alive. Eventually, he got to know his neighbors, and became a sort of cultural liason between archaeologists and the descendents of local ancients whose artifacts were riddles to the scientific community. Lyall Watson's slightly imaginative biography of this prodigal spirit is rich in anthropological detail and illustrated with simple but evocative sketches of some of the artifacts that Adrian's interviews with rural healers and magicians have helped to explain.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lightning Bird, December 26, 2000

By 

Nene Wolfe (Juneau, AK USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lightning Bird: The Story of One Man's Journey into Africa's Past (A Touchstone book) (Paperback)

The Lightning Bird has remained my very favorite book of all times. It captures how very different indeed the African mind and perspective is from our Western one. Beautifully written, this book is a must on African afishionados book shelf.