Love, Life, and Elephants by Daphne Sheldrick

…opening my eyes to the spell of space and the contrasts that transformed the semi-desert of the brick red earth and grim leafless trees in the dry season to a vibrant painted paradise after the first rains. Sheldrick paints Tsavo so vividly that the landscape becomes a beloved character in its own right. A gorgeous love story ensues, but it is only the first of many. The newlyweds moved to Tsavo, where David Sheldrick, a man who “was renowned for his film-star looks and had…an unusual reverence for life as well as a deep empathy for animals,” presided as warden. She attended boarding schools in Nakura and Nairobi and earned a full university scholarship in England, but decided instead to marry her high school sweetheart, Bill, who was an assistant warden at the recently created Tsavo National Park. It was only after the narrative settled into recounting Sheldrick’s own life that I became thoroughly engrossed.ĭaphne Sheldrick was born and raised on her family’s ranch in Gilgil, sixty miles northwest of Nairobi. She depicts them as brave, adventurous pioneers–and they undoubtedly embodied these qualities–but the unspoken imperialist presumption left me somewhat uncomfortable throughout the first chapter.

The book starts unevenly with an account of how Sheldrick’s family came to settle in Kenya. The book charts Sheldrick’s life from her grandparents’ immigration to Kenya, through her childhood playing in the WWII biltong camps, into her star-crossed love story, and the creation of her internationally praised animal orphanage that has saved hundreds of elephant’s lives.

Enter Dame Daphne Sheldrick and her astounding autobiography, Love, Life and Elephants An African Love Story. Memoir, biography, and autobiography don’t typically interest me because I couldn’t care less about famous or political figures and, to be frank, most of my attention for someone’s struggles and triumphs through life is reserved for family and friends. I usually read fiction because I enjoy stories about uncompromising people who do extraordinary things. Let’s start with a friendly reviewer disclaimer.

Love, Life, and Elephants by Daphne Sheldrick