Wildflower
(2010) is about the life and death of Joan Root (1936-2006), the wife and producer/assistant
of wildlife documentary film-maker Alan Root. One of the couple’s films about
termites, Mysterious Castles of Clay, narrated by Orson Welles, was nominated
for an Oscar in 1978. Other films included the migration of wildebeest herds
across the Serengeti, the Galapagos Islands, elephants, cobras, mountain
gorillas, and the first hot-air balloon flight over Mount Kilimanjaro. They
were an indomitable team.
Born
in Kenya to British parents, Joan was also well-known for her conservation efforts
at Lake Naivasha. But the novel begins with her marriage to Alan in 1961, and
their collaborative travels and films, predominantly across East Africa.
Compiled
from letters and memorabilia from her husband, Seal enters the mind and
emotions of a remarkable adventurer. While Alan was the “front man” and the man
behind the camera, Joan was the one that put the film together “and more” –
photography, preproduction, post production, processing, recording, accounting,
procurement, packing vehicles, and fixing things. “Joan did all that
single-handedly.” Yet she was quiet and self-effacing, staying in the
background. Seal describes Joan in favourable terms – beautiful, gentle, quiet,
strong, capable, meticulous, and organized.
Setting
up home at Lake Naivasha, it had become the couple’s headquarters and film
studio, but it was also a home for animals of every kind. Film-making was the
glue that held them together. But over the years Alan spent more and more time
editing his films in London. And then he met “the most attractive” Jennie
Hammond – who increasingly took charge of Alan’s life. He married her in 1991.
From
that point, the focus of Seal’s book is firmly on Joan’s personal reinvention
and her “major turning point” after the divorce and subsequent loss of her
career – her emotional state, and her life on her property in Naivasha. No
longer a “shrinking violet” she did things out of character – joining the elite
Muthaiga Club and going to London for a face-lift. Still acutely sad, she became
consumed by the conservation of Lake Naivasha, which would create her biggest
challenge of all.
Well-written,
well-paced, intriguing, poignant, supportive and understanding, Seal
writes of Joan's tensions and conflicts with poachers, criminals, and
land-grabbers, reaching a climax with constant home invaders, gun-point
robberies, and the violent deaths of those living around her – and her ultimate
murder.
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