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@Barrie Summy
book review blogs
@Barrie Summy
Before I go into the actual review of this book I want to put out a couple of disclaimers. One is, I read this book between two and three years ago. Having just watched Born Free today though, I felt inspired to write this review for the book review club. The second disclaimer is that around the same time I read My Pride and Joy, I also read all of the Born Free books (there are three) written by George's wife, Joy, as well as a bunch of articles and I watched a number of interviews and documentaries. I mention these things because there may be some unintentional bleed over from other materials captured in this review.
With that said, My Pride and Joy is the life story of George Adamson, as told by George Adamson. It starts from when he was a young boy and follows his life to becoming a game warden in Kenya and his work with rehabilitating "domesticated" lions so that they can live in the wild.
I'll be honest and say that the first part of the book about his childhood and young adulthood did not hold my interest well and therefore I didn't retain a lot of that information. (Maybe I needed a third disclaimer? :-/ )
But I do remember when he first met Joy. She was married to husband number two at the time. George was drawn to her but considered her off limits until one day she bluntly told him that she was interested, her marriage was over and she had permission to divorce and marry George. George was stunned but confirmed with the husband what Joy had said and when he found it was true, he did marry Joy. He had concerns that she would be too "delicate" for the life he led but he quickly found that she held up just fine and never complained about the conditions in which they had to live.
From many of the things I've read about Joy, she wasn't a particularly pleasant person and George actually addresses that in his book. He admits that she was difficult and put off many people because of how she was. Despite the fact that Born Free had been written mostly by using his notes and that he had helped edit the book, he didn't receive any proceeds from the books or movies. She used this money to manipulate situations and eventually cut him off completely financially when he refused to do as she "demanded" when Bill Traverse (who played George in Born Free) refused to make her the star of a documentary he was working on. He (Bill) had wanted to film a documentary on the work George was doing on lions to help bring awareness to the need for conservation. By this time Joy had moved on to working with cheetahs and wanted the documentary to be about her. George refused to insist that Bill do his documentary on Joy so Joy cut George off financially. George was unable to pay his workers (who stayed with him anyway) and had to eat camel and military rations to survive. But he never complained and continued to have affection for Joy up until her murder by a disgruntled employee she had refused to pay.
A lot of the book was about his work with lions. He talked about working on the movie Born Free. He was the film consultant (Joy wasn't allowed on set, much less allowed to give input, even though she "authored" the book). He didn't like the treatment the lions were getting and he threatened to walk off the film, if they didn't change. They changed and he stayed.
When filming ended he bought as many of the lions as he could so that he could work with them and help them to be able to live in the wild. Two of the lions from the film were brother and sister and named Boy and Girl, respectively. He spent a period of time in one particular area with the lions. Girl had adjusted well but Boy had gotten injured. When George was told they had to move on, he left Girl behind and took Boy with him.
George loved Boy to the extent that when George was murdered (trying to save tourists, I believe, from poachers - something from another source not the book since his book doesn't cover his own death), he was buried next to Boy, per his known desire (Joy's ashes were spread over Elsa's grave - at least some were anyway).
He also talks about a lot of other lions that he worked with and the trials, successes and failures he had in doing that. It was abundantly clear that he loved his work and the animals he worked with. Some of the animals went off and he didn't always find out what became of them. He related those stories to question marks, saying that the best possible outcome was the question mark because it likely meant a successful re-introduction into the wild (some animals they found evidence of their lack of success in the wild, which is why the question mark was a good thing).
In general, the book was a story of a man who was a true conservationist who cared more about the animals in the wild than he did just about anything else. He didn't seek fame or fortune and got by with whatever he had to without complaint. I think a testament to the type of man he was is that his crew stayed with him even when he wasn't able to pay them.
I really enjoyed this book, even though I did have difficulty in the beginning of the book which covered his early years. Otherwise, top notch book that I highly recommend!
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