This fascinating story of an English Lt Colonel sent to Africa in 1998, to oversee the construction of a bridge. The bridge was being built by 3000 workers imported from India. Being unused to the country, they slept in canvas tents, unaware that two male lions had decided to change their diet to include man. Patterson goes from royal engineer to big game hunter as he tries to track down these two big cats, who seem to be blessed with magical luck. Stories differ at the number of people actually killed, but 135 is generally stated. Two lions in nine months, that's a lot of attacks. It's a famous story, written as only a turn of the century Englishman could write, which i think adds to its charm. It became a best seller instantly across the Empire and even Teddy Roosevelt became a huge fan, wanting to know every detail.
It has been made into a number of films, probably the most famous being ' The Ghost and the Darkness' in 1996. I watched this film last week on Amazon and it lead to me ordering the actual book of the story.
I'm pretty sure a 'One hour wargame' could be made out of this epic battle between man and beast. The events are quite unbelievable but true.
There are some good documentaries on YouTube too, well worth a watch.
Good book and movie. And yes there is a game in there.
ReplyDeleteIf you can produce a sense of suspense and dread it would be a cracking good game. Plenty of lion & hunter figures about!
ReplyDeleteSome of these period books really are full of atmosphere and a very different outlook on the world - I've got one by a guy who did a lot of hunting while serving in the Raj. Interestingly even then he was starting to wonder about the sustainability of hunting at scale.
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