The Man-Eaters of Tsavo

Vivid narrative of a colonial in East Africa. Famous for the lion hunting (which is riveting), but to me more interesting for the general depiction of colonial life. One Englishman, out in the wilderness commanding a camp of 500+ workers, must complete a railroad line. Where does he get stone, how does he deal with the lack of a crane, how does he accomplish all this with trigonometry, his copy book, and a theodolite? And then when he learns that there is a conspiracy among the men to murder him, what does he do? Most of the hunting is entertainment for Patterson, and that too reveals such a remarkable cast of mind -- sitting motionless for three hours at night to get a rhino.

The first 100 or so pages here are the action one wants when one picks up this book. Two man-eating lions that seemingly cannot be tracked, hunted, wounded, or killed eating the unfortunate workers on the East African British railway at the end of the 19th century and one man's epic of ending their ghoulish career. Despite that being the impetus for the book, the majority of the narrative is devoted to post man-eater railway construction, the proto-nation of Kenya and its various native tribes and customs, and all the hunting stories one could possible want to expect. It's amazing there were any Ibex, Gazelles, Lions, Rhinos, or other four-legged creatures left once Patterson journeyed away from Africa.

Fascinating portrait of a people show more (Indians, Africans, the British), a place, and a time. Not enough of the two man-eaters, frankly! show less

The author, writing a hundred + years ago, assumes the reader is interested in dangerous lion attacks. Now that stuff wasn't boring by any means, but the real value from this is a glimpse into the attitude and perspective of extreme pro-colonialism from a primary source. Its wild.

A reasonably good and interesting memoir about hunting wild animals in East Africa. John Henry Patterson became famous for killing the two man-eating lions of Tsavo, who are now on display in the Chicago Field Museum. Only the first half of this book is about the Tsavo lions, though; the second half is about his hunting other animals such as rhinos, etc.

Patterson seemed like a pretty likeable guy to me, modest, and not very racist by late 19th-century British Empire standards. The book made me feel distinctly uncomfortable though, because just about every animal whom he stalked and killed with such relish is now an endangered species in large part because of hunters like him. But if you like African adventure stories, you'll like this.

Although not a fan of hunting, the early 20th century hunting books were the majority of books about Africa, making them of broader interest, so I have a lot of these. The fascinating thing about this one is that Patterson was overseeing the building of a bridge, a major undertaking, and only incidentally had to stalk and kill the maneating lions to preserve his workforce. Therefore he was the ultimate multitasker.

The paperback that I have is a 1996 Pocketbooks reprint with an introduction by Jeanne Dixon, a tie-in to the release of the film, "The Ghost and the Darkness", which relies heavily on Patterson's Memoirs. He was a creature of his times and the language and attitude's of the author are not in 21st Century tastes. But is useful showing 19th and early 20th century attitudes. He likes a good story, and his account may have gone for colour rather than accuracy. I refer the reader to Charles Miller's "The Lunatic Express" for a less self-centred account.

I have read this book multiple times.
The term, 'other duties as assigned' relates to this tale in such a way that anyone today assigned these 'other duties' would run screaming from the room or file a complaint with HR (people today are far more wussy than they used to be).
The evil genius of the lions is entertaining in a horrific way. The almost human way they adapt, plot and execute the hunt is an excellent example of the cognitive skills lions may possess.
The human didn't do badly himself at adapting, plotting and executing, although he almost lost this life and death game a few times.
I was drawn into the story, though after reading the account of the lions I admit I began to lose interest with the rest of the book. Don't get me show more wrong here, if all you read is the title part of the story, it's well worth the read. show less