Skip to main content

The Marsh Lions by Brian Jackman, Jonathan & Angie Scott: book review



The Marsh Lions: The Story of an African Pride (1982, this edition 2012) is set in the Masai Mara Game Reserve in Kenya.

It is the true story of a pride of lions, followed and observed for two years from January 1978 to January 1980. There is a Postscript from February 1980 to September 1981, and this edition has an epilogue written in 2011.

Readers can follow the daily lives of the Marsh lions, which begins with Dark Mane, Old Man, Young Girl, Notch, Shadow, and Mkubwa (Big). Then comes Scar, Brando, Old Girl, and lions of other prides. But it is also the story of the wild dogs, cheetahs, leopards, hyenas, warthogs, elephants, elands, and a myriad of birds, all interacting in their communal kingdom. It is also the story of droughts and rains.

It describes the massive annual migration in June and July when thousands of wildebeest and zebra leave the Serengeti National Park in neighbouring Tanzania and cross the northern border into Kenya. In 1948 land between the Mara River and the Tanzanian border were declared a national reserve, which expanded in 1961.

In many respects the late 1970s and early 1980s was the ‘golden age’ for lions in Kenya when land was abundant and people were scarce.

Beautifully told with sentences such as, ‘In the first golden hour after sunrise, when the sentinel olive trees and flat-roofed acacias flung their long shadows across the grasslands, a Masai youth was walking over the dusty plains’ and the description of meat-eating marabou storks: ‘Hideously ugly, with scabby heads, pendulous neck pouches and leering Skid Row eyes, they stand for hours in the trees, watching for corpses in the river or surveying the Marsh for leftover kills.’

This is the African equivalent of the 1972 British book ‘Watership Down’ by Richard Adams (1920-2016), but infinitely more real, and more unpredictable. Every birth and death and struggle for life is captured in poetic, evocative writing, with amazing glossy colour photographs.







MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pir-E-Kamil - The Perfect Mentor by Umera Ahmed: book review

The Perfect Mentor pbuh  (2011) is set in Lahore and Islamabad in Pakistan. The novel commences with Imama Mubeen in medical university. She wants to be an eye specialist. Her parents have arranged for her to marry her first cousin Asjad. Salar Sikander, her neighbour, is 18 years old with an IQ of 150+ and a photographic memory. He has long hair tied in a ponytail. He imbibes alcohol, treats women disrespectfully and is generally a “weird chap” and a rude, belligerent teenager. In the past three years he has tried to commit suicide three times. He tries again. Imama and her brother, Waseem, answer the servant’s call to help Salar. They stop the bleeding from his wrist and save his life. Imama and Asjad have been engaged for three years, because she wants to finish her studies first. Imama is really delaying her marriage to Asjad because she loves Jalal Ansar. She proposes to him and he says yes. But he knows his parents won’t agree, nor will Imama’s parents. ...
1 comment
Read more

The acacia thorn trees of Kenya

There are nearly 800 species of acacia trees in the world, and most don’t have thorns. The famous "whistling thorn tree" and the Umbrella Thorn tree of Kenya are species of acacia that do have thorns, or spines. Giraffes and other herbivores normally eat thorny acacia foliage, but leave the whistling thorn alone. Usually spines are no deterrent to giraffes. Their long tongues are adapted to strip the leaves from the branches despite the thorns. The thorny acacia like dry and hot conditions. The thorns typically occur in pairs and are 5-8 centimetres (2-3 inches) long. Spines can be straight or curved depending on the species. MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Suda...
1 comment
Read more

Shindi: the Georgian Cornelian cherry

The Cornelian cherry – shindi in Georgian – is a fruit with medicinal and decorative properties. It was grown from ancient times, according to the International Society for Horticultural Science (ISHS). It is also commonly called the European cornel. It is native to southern Europe from France to Ukraine as well as Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, Turkey, Israel, Lebanon, and Syria. The Cornelian cherry tree ( Cornus mas ) can be grown in orchards, but it is often seen in the forests of Georgia where it grows up to 1,350 metres above sea level. It is a medium to large deciduous tree, growing from 5-12 metres tall. The flowers are small with four yellow petals in clusters, which flower in February and March. The Cornus mas has three botanical varieties: (1) var. typica Sanadze with cylindrical red fruits, (2) var. pyriformis Sanadze with pear-shaped red fruits, and (3) var. flava vest with yellow fruits. The fruits are oblong red drupes about 2 centimetres ...
Post a Comment
Read more