Description
In 1965, when Haile Selassie decided Ethiopia must have National Parks and Nature Reserves, he appointed John Blower as his adviser and senior warden. What followed was a formidable challenge: struggling with a complex, corrupt and medieval bureaucracy in Addis Ababa and the shifting allegiances of warlords and brigands in the countryside. But the magnificence of Ethiopia’s scenery and wildlife and the interesting diversity of its people more than made up for the difficulties, and the author’s evident delight in his life “in the bush” provides us with an insight into Ethiopia at a time when, despite the then low-level insurgency in Eritrea, it was a relatively happy and peaceful country.”
John Blower’s own superb black and white photographs accompany a vivid tale of his four years as the Emperor’s game warden.
