Customer Reviews

Memories of an African Hunter (Peter Capstick's Library)

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There was a time when elephants weren't endangered. In fact in certain parts of Africa they still aren't. Having lived a couple years in Botswana as a kid, my earliest memories include many elephants, that and my dad testing just how fast a Land Cruiser could go in reverse as we were being charged by a bull elephant.
Alas though, elephant hunting isn't a politically correct topic of discussion even among most hunters. Many think this sport was nothing more than shooting blindly into a herd of large animals and hacking off the tusks. That may happen in some areas of the world, but that isn't hunting elephant, not the way Denis D. Lyell describes it. Maybe his days are over, but thankfully they are recorded in this book for the rest of us.
He describes what it is like to hike through miles and miles of bush living off the land in pursuit of elephant. He didn't just shoot elephants, he stalked them. And they aren't that easy to stalk. Many a hunter lost his life to the elephant he was pursuing. It isn't an easy thing to sneak in within shooting distance of a big bull in the midst of a herd and "brain" the animal with a shot through the eye, or ear with a relatively small caliber rifle for the job. And when you have finished doing that, you have to also keep clear of the stampede you created.
This is a great book chronicling what the days of the "great white hunter" were like. Denis D. Lyell also does much to talk about the need for conservation, and sportsmen etiquette. The language is sometimes a bit uncouth for our day, and a bit harsh to hear even for my ears. In some respects you are happy the days are bygone. Yet it is fascinating story telling, filled with suspense and pluck.

Hardback with dustjacket, 268 pp, cloth over boards with a sewn binding.

From the flap: "One of the truly great writers on African hunting, Denis Lyell was the center of the hunting world in the early 1900s. His gripping and highly readable Memories of an African Hunter, an account of his many years in the Dark Contintent includes sections on elephant, rhino, buffalo, hippo, lion, and much more."

"...brings the reader the heat, fatigue, and adventure of African hunting, the smell of campfires long extinguished, the dust, the blood, the malaria, the sleeping sickness, the alcoholism, camaraderie and suicides, man-eating incidents and all those often harrrowing conditions of life in the British Central African bush of the day."

Hardback with dustjacket, 268 pp, cloth over boards with a sewn binding.

From the flap: "One of the truly great writers on African hunting, Denis Lyell was the center of the hunting world in the early 1900s. His gripping and highly readable Memories of an African Hunter, an account of his many years in the Dark Continent includes sections on elephant, rhino, buffalo, hippo, lion, and much more."

"...brings the reader the heat, fatigue, and adventure of African hunting, the smell of campfires long extinguished, the dust, the blood, the malaria, the sleeping sickness, the alcoholism, camaraderie and suicides, man-eating incidents and all those often harrrowing conditions of life in the British Central African bush of the day."

Very happy with my purchase have been trying for years to find this book to complete the set and finding one in good condition was a bonus. Thanks to a friend at work who told me about amazon i look forward to using amazon more often book description was accurate and postage very prompt thank you