Daphne Sheldrick (1934–2018)

Digital audiobook narrated by Virginia McKenna

Subtitle: An African Love Story

From the book jacket: Daphne Sheldrick, whose family arrived in Africa from Scotland in the 1820s, is the first person ever to have successfully hand-reared newborn elephants. Her deep empathy and understanding, her years of observing Kenya’s rich variety of wildlife, and her pioneering work in perfecting the right husbandry and milk formula have saved countless elephants, rhinos, and other baby animals from show more certain death.

My reactions
This is a wonderful memoir that takes the reader from Sheldrick’s birth and childhood through her teen years, and first love, on to the love of her life, David Sheldrick, and the work they accomplished together. He truly inspired her to a variety of achievements, perhaps most famously the founding of the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust and the orphans’ nursery in Nairobi National Park.

She writes in a frank and open manner, describing her missteps as openly as her triumphs. I can feel her empathy with the animals, cheered with her when she achieved success, and shed tears at the heartbreaking events that befell some of her favorite animals. While I was interested most in her work with elephants, Sheldrick had room in her life for a wide variety of orphaned animals – rhinos, antelope, mongoose, and a mischievous zebra, among others.

Virginia McKenna does a marvelous job voicing the audio book. She has great pacing and really brought Sheldrick’s voice and point of view to life. show less

I read this book immediately prior to participating in a walking safari across Tsavo West and East National Parks in Kenya. Although the style is dated Daphne Sheldrick's account of the creation of Tsavo East, her life as the partner of the first warden, David Sheldrick, is both inspiring and sad. David passed away not many years after the book was published and Tsavo was wracked by two major poaching wars in the '70s and the '80s that hammered the elephant and all but wiped out the black show more rhino.

The Tsavo Story was essential to understanding the place and I am grateful that it was the first book that I read about the area (many have been written).

As we in South Africa discuss "the elephant problem" yet again, it is instructive to note that the Sheldricks had intuitively decoded the elephant-human dynamic and elephants' role in the ecosystem more than thirty years ago. Tsavo is the story of the two great mammal species on the planet and their sometimes fraught relationship. The story continues.

I was delighted to learn that Dame Daphne still re-introduces orphan elephants into Tsavo to this day and that the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust continues to be vital to Tsavo's survival and funding.

Sometimes sad, but ultimately inspiring. A testimony to lives well lived. show less

Sheldrick paints a vivid picture of life in Kenya for the settler community during the twentieth century. Her descriptions of the land, the animals, and the establishment of Tsavo National Reserve and orphan rescue is fascinating, but I struggled with her lack of acknowledgement of non-white figures in this narrative. They are rarely mentioned by name and most that are are enemy poaches or politicians. Do not misunderstand me: I enjoyed this book a lot, but I feel like there is more to the show more story. show less

This book is both fascinating and at times almost unbearably sad to read. It is an autobiographical story of a woman who grew up in Kenya while it was still a British colony. Her family was involved in wildlife protection and helped establish the national parks there. She ends up an authority on saving orphan elephants and rhinos, and along the way we hear horrible stories about the poaching of these magnificent animals that has gone on (and is still going on) over the years. She also has show more many amusing stories about all the orphan animals she and her family saved, so it's not all grim; I often had trouble putting it down. There is also quite a bit of history presented in a highly personal fashion, ie how the transition from British colony to independent Kenya actually affected people. I highly recommend it, you can skip over the worst parts. show less