[alyeska338]

This is my favorite of the 20 or so African safari books I have. Written by Robert Ruark and published in 1966 after his death, Ruark puts the reader into the African game fields for the ride. His writing is somewhat like Hemingway without so much bravado, very descriptive and unapologetic. Hunts described in this book take place in throughout the 1950's and 60's. From elephants to Thompson's Gazelles you are there for every dusty breath and every fang, tooth, hook and claw.

Ruark writes more about hunting, man and his relationship with the earth and game hunted than ballistics or actions. He definitely loves his pet rifles, a .470 in Westley Richards double, a 375 H&H and bolt action 30-06 (which he used to kill one massive old Cape Buffalo). Many charges are described from Elephants, Buffalo, Rhino and cats, but he writes more the safari experience, probably better than anyone who has ever lived.

I just, once again, re-read this book after reading Boddington's Ten More Years, and it is a shame we don't really have any writers of this caliber anymore. Boddington and Seyfried may be as good of hunting writers as we have now, and they just don't hold a candle to Ruark or Hemingway. Granted, Seyfried is very very good, but I sure wish we still had folks like Ruark around.

If you need one book about a safari in Africa, this is as good or better than any that I've read. 10 out of 10.

 

[Fireplug]

I will second Alyeska's opinion on Ruark's safari writing, and recomend a second of his books: Something of Value. Although "Something" is primarily a historical novel about the Mau Mau Emergency in Kenya (a warning this was writen before society valued PC more than honesty, and the best of historical novels can safely be more honest than none fiction works), their is some very first rate safari and conservsation writing interspersed.

Fireplug

 

[IDShooter]

I'll certainly agree on Ruark! I've got "Use Enough Gun", "Horn of the Hunter" (which is excerpted in "Use Enough Gun"), and "The Old Man and the Boy". I've also read "Something of Value", which I borrowed from the library. Man, does that book have some graphic descriptions of the Kikuyu rituals, or the bastardized rituals, I should say.
So far everything I've read by Ruark has been top-notch!

IDShooter