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Alan Root is one of the great wildlife pioneers. He began his career making films for the TV series Survival, which started wildlife film-making as we know it, and is responsible for numerous groundbreaking documentaries and natural history discoveries -- from being the first person to film hippos and crocodiles underwater and the wildebeest migrating to observing that hyenas hunt. His friends and colleagues have included George and Joy Adamson and David Attenborough; he showed Dian Fossey her first mountain gorilla. His wife and long-term collaborator was Joan Root, who was tragically murdered in 2006 in retaliation for her environmental campaigning in Kenya.
In Ivory, Apes & Peacocks, Alan tells the story of his life's work, from his arrival in Kenya as a young boy (furious at having to leave behind Britain's birds) to his game-changing films, which looked at whole ecosystems (baobab trees, termite mounds) rather than the Big Five animals. Along the way we encounter Sally the pet hippo and Emily the house-proud chimp as well leopard and snake bites, ballooning adventures and amphibious cars.
In this extraordinary memoir we look at Africa's wonders through the eyes of a visionary, live through hair-raising adventure and personal tragedy and also bear witness to a natural world now largely lost from view.
In Ivory, Apes & Peacocks, Alan tells the story of his life's work, from his arrival in Kenya as a young boy (furious at having to leave behind Britain's birds) to his game-changing films, which looked at whole ecosystems (baobab trees, termite mounds) rather than the Big Five animals. Along the way we encounter Sally the pet hippo and Emily the house-proud chimp as well leopard and snake bites, ballooning adventures and amphibious cars.
In this extraordinary memoir we look at Africa's wonders through the eyes of a visionary, live through hair-raising adventure and personal tragedy and also bear witness to a natural world now largely lost from view.
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About the Author:
ALAN ROOT was born in London in 1937 but moved to Kenya as a young boy. He dropped out of school at sixteen but soon found himself behind the camera. He married Joan Thorpe in 1961 and together they produced an array of award-winning wildlife films including Baobab: Portrait of a Tree, commissioned by David Attenborough, Safari by Balloon, The Year of the Wildebeest and Castles of Clay, which was nominated for an Oscar. Alan has won over sixty awards during his career, including an Emmy, three Lifetime Achievement Awards an OBE. He now lives on the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy in northern Kenya with his wife and two small sons.
Review:
"Written by a consummate wordsmith, Alan Root's enthralling memoir is the best true-life adventure story to come out of Africa for years. The final chapter, which describes Root's last moments with Joan, I found almost too painful to read (5 star review)" -- Brian Jackman Daily Telegraph "This is an entrancing book. Root is a natural story-teller, roaming East Africa before poachers began to decimate the wildlife. Against the staggering backdrop of East Africa's landscape and wildlife, the darkness of its problems casts a growing shadow over this book... Luckily, Alan Root's wonderful films remain, a testimony to the man of whom David Attenborough once said: 'He made wild-life films grow up'" Daily Mail "In a riveting memoir, Root offers far more than a few well-work anecdotes of cute, hand-reared animals who like to sit down to breakfast with you and curl up on the sofa after dinner...a truly compelling book, savage and sparkling by turns" -- Kathryn Hughes Mail on Sunday "Root is aware that his magical life has 'run parallel with a heartbreaking holocaust, as wildlife conservation has proved to be a disastrous failure'. This wonderful book can't put it more honestly than that. Not only are the current generation of wildlife film-makers mere pygmies compared to Root, but soon they will not even be able to attempt matching his documentaries because the world he captured has ceased to exist." -- Aidan Hartley Spectator "If Dame Daphne Sheldrick's touching and romantic Love, Life, and Elephants has been climbing the bestseller lists in Britain and America, Alan Root's Ivory, Apes and Peacocks is by far the deeper and more interesting read. The problems that beset Africa's wildlife - population pressures, poaching, drought and disease - are all part of this story, though balanced here by Mr Root's sense of fun and adventure" The Economist
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- PublisherChatto & Windus
- Publication date2012
- ISBN 10 0701186046
- ISBN 13 9780701186043
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages336
- Rating
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Ivory, Apes & Peacocks: Animals, Adventure and Discovery in the Wild Places of Africa
Published by
Chatto & Windus
(2012)
ISBN 10: 0701186046
ISBN 13: 9780701186043
Used
Softcover
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Book Description Condition: Good. Item in good condition. Textbooks may not include supplemental items i.e. CDs, access codes etc. Seller Inventory # 00050861981
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Ivory, Apes & Peacocks: Animals, adventure and discovery in the wild places of Africa
Published by
Vintage Publishing, United Kingdom, London
(2012)
ISBN 10: 0701186046
ISBN 13: 9780701186043
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Paperback
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Book Description Paperback. Condition: Good. Alan Root is one of Africa's most bitten. In the course of his adventures he has been mauled by a leopard, a silverback gorilla and a hippo, and almost lost his life to a deadly puff adder, which claimed one of his fingers. Root's unmatched experience of East African wildlife and his appetite for risk have made him a world-class naturalist and film-maker. He's one of the great wildlife pioneers. In Ivory, Apes & Peacocks, Alan tells the story of his life's work, from his arrival in Kenya as a young boy (furious at having to leave behind Britain's birds) to the making of his game-changing films. Instead of sticking to the Big Five animals, these looked up close at whole ecosystems - baobab trees, termite mounds, natural springs - and involved firsts such as tracking the wildebeest migration from a balloon, then flying it over Kilimanjaro, filming inside a hornbill's nest and diving with hippos and crocodiles. Along the way we meet Sally the pet hippo and Emily the house-proud chimp, watch as Dian Fossey catches sight of her first mountain gorilla and have sundowners with George and Joy Adamson. And here, too, is Joan Root, Alan's wife and collaborator for over thirty years, who was brutally murdered in retaliation for her environmental campaigning. In this extraordinary memoir we look at Africa's wonders through the eyes of a visionary, live through hair-raising adventure and personal sorrow, and also bear witness to a natural world now largely lost from view. The book has been read but remains in clean condition. All pages are intact and the cover is intact. Some minor wear to the spine. Seller Inventory # GOR005554631
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Ivory, Apes & Peacocks: Animals, Adventure and Discovery in the Wild Places of Africa
Published by
Chatto & Windus
(2012)
ISBN 10: 0701186046
ISBN 13: 9780701186043
Used
Softcover
Quantity: 1
Seller:
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Book Description Befriedigend/Good: Durchschnittlich erhaltenes Buch bzw. Schutzumschlag mit Gebrauchsspuren, aber vollständigen Seiten. / Describes the average WORN book or dust jacket that has all the pages present. Seller Inventory # M00701186046-G
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