Skip to main content

My Life with the Chimpanzees by Jane Goodall: book review


My Life with the Chimpanzees (1988, revised edition 2020) is the autobiography of Jane Goodall, the first person to study chimpanzees in the wild – in Tanzania.

 

Goodall begins with her childhood in England and her life amongst nature and animals. Her first trip to Kenya at the age of 23 was for three months, before returning at the age of 26 to work at the Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania for British anthropologist Louis Leakey (1903-1972). 


Leakey was noted for hiring three female researchers who became well-known primatologists in their own right: Jane Goodall (1934-) in Tanzania, studying chimpanzees, Dian Fossey (1932-1985) in Rwanda studying gorillas (‘Gorillas in the Mist), and Birute Galdikas (1946-) in Borneo studying orangutans.


This is about Goodall’s early work from 1960 onwards. She writes of her mother joining her, and her marriage in 1964 to Hugo van Lawick, a Dutch wildlife photographer hired by the National Geographic Society to photograph the chimps. She writes of the birth of their son Hugo Eric Louis Lawick (‘Grub’) in 1967 and compares his growth with the growing family of chimpanzees. 


There are lots of black and white photographs in the book. Hugo and Jane separated when Grub was seven years old in 1974, and Grub went to school in England. Her second marriage in 1975 to Derek Bryceson, director of Tanzania’s national parks, ended in 1980 when he died of cancer.


The first edition is followed by an update in 2020 to mention her conservation work and the establishment of her Roots and Shoots program. 


It is essentially a quick overview of Goodall and her work – there is not a lot of detail, and it can be read in a few hours. Nor is it scientific, emotional, well-written, or eloquent. Instead, it is a steady, even-keeled account of events in her life that doesn’t embellish all the work she has done for the past sixty years, and her name in history. She has written many more autobiographical accounts, as well as stories and children’s stories, so this is but a drop in the primate sphere of her long life with apes. 











As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.


MARTINA NICOLLS

Website

Martinasblogs

Publications

Facebook

Paris Website

Animal Website

SUBSCRIBE TO MARTINA NICOLLS FOR NEWS AND UPDATES 

 

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author  of: The Paris Residences of James Joyce  (2020), 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

Flaws in the Glass, a self-portrait by Patrick White: book review

The manuscript, Flaws in the Glass (1981), is Patrick Victor Martindale White’s autobiography. White, born in 1912 in England, migrated to Sydney, Australia, when he was six months old. For three years, at the age of 20, he studied French and German literature at King’s College at the University of Cambridge in England. Throughout his life, he published 12 novels. In 1957 he won the inaugural Miles Franklin Literary Award for Voss, published in 1956. In 1961, Riders in the Chariot became a best-seller, winning the Miles Franklin Literary Award. In 1973, he was the first Australian author to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for The Eye of the Storm, despite many critics describing his works as ‘un-Australian’ and himself as ‘Australia’s most unreadable novelist.’ In 1979, The Twyborn Affair was short-listed for the Booker Prize, but he withdrew it from the competition to give younger writers the opportunity to win the award. His autobiography, Flaws in the Glass...
Post a Comment
Read more

Sister cities discussed: Canberra and Islamabad

Two months ago, in March 2015, Australia and Pakistan agreed to explore ways to deepen ties. The relationship between Australia and Pakistan has been strong for decades, and the two countries continue to keep dialogues open. The annual bilateral discussions were held in Australia in March to continue engagements on a wide range of matters of mutual interest. The Pakistan delegation discussed points of interest will include sports, agriculture, economic growth, trade, border protection, business, and education. The possible twinning of the cities of Canberra, the capital of Australia, and Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, were also on the agenda (i.e. called twin towns or sister cities). Sister City relationships are twinning arrangements that build friendships as well as government, business, culture, and community linkages. Canberra currently has international Sister City relationships with Beijing in China and Nara in Japan. One example of existing...
1 comment
Read more