Love, Life, and Elephants: An African Love Story

Written by Daphne Sheldrick

Narrated by Virginia McKenna

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 certain death.

In this heartwarming and poignant memoir, Daphne shares her amazing relationships with a host of orphans, including her first love, Bushy, a liquid-eyed antelope; Rickey-Tickey-Tavey, the little dwarf mongoose; Gregory Peck, the busy buffalo weaver bird; Huppety, the mischievous zebra; and the majestic elephant Eleanor, with whom Daphne has shared more than forty years of great friendship.

But this is also a magical and heartbreaking human love story between Daphne and David Sheldrick, the famous Tsavo Park warden. It was their deep and passionate love, David's extraordinary insight into all aspects of nature, and the tragedy of his early death that inspired Daphne's vast array of achievements, most notably the founding of the world-renowned David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust and the Orphans' Nursery in Nairobi National Park, where Daphne continues to live and work to this day.

Encompassing not only David and Daphne's tireless campaign for an end to poaching and for conserving Kenya's wildlife, but also their ability to engage with the human side of animals and their rearing of the orphans expressly so they can return to the wild, Love, Life, and Elephants is alive with compassion and humor, providing a rare insight into the life of one of the world's most remarkable women.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Macmillan Audio
• Release date: May 8, 2012
• ISBN: 9781427226778

Daphne Sheldrick

Dame Daphne Sheldrick is a Kenyan author, conservationist, and expert in animal husbandry, particularly the raising and reintegrating of orphaned elephants into the wild. From 1955 to 1976, Sheldrick was co-warden of Kenya’s Tsavo National Park.

Reviews for Love, Life, and Elephants

[pennymck_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A heart-warming story of people communicating with animals, protecting Kenya's national parks, and rescuing orphaned animals and returning them to the wild.

[acook_713547 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

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 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.

[peggygillman · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

At first I thought she spent too much time on her life and not enough on the animal stories but after a while, I grew to love her story. A lovely book. What an amazing woman with infinite patience for her baby elephants. 7/3

[bookwoman247 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was a wonderful memoir of the author's passion for African wildlife as well as her deeply abiding love for her second husband, David Sheldrick. This was such a lovely book, in fact, that I'm now reluctant to leave Africa, so my next book will be about Africa as well.