The life story of Joy Adamson, her husband George and her lioness Elsa is inextricably linked to the recent history of conservation in Kenya. While George was a senior game warden in the Northern Frontier District, Joy adopted a lion cub that later became a star after the publication of her first account, "Born free", and even more upon the release of the film based on her experiences. Her subsequent books, "Living free" and "Forever free", are compiled together with the original work in the English edition. Though Joy and George's struggle against poachers would cost them their lives, or perhaps because of that, their thorough work on wildlife conservation has remained an epitome in Kenya's environmental commitment.

Prior to the release of the print version, Melinda Atwood's book was published online in Bwanazulia's website in monthly chapters. This peculiarity perfectly reflects the freshness and liveliness displayed in this captivating chronicle. Melinda travelled from the heart of the United States to the heart of Kenya, and from heart to heart she talks. Her agile, humorous and non-pretentious style makes a tender and delicious reading that has become, in no time, a must in Kenya lovers' bookshelves.

The strange true story of a -nonrecreational?- climb to Mount Kenya. When World War II extended its creepy fingers to the African Colonies, local skirmishes between the Allied Army and the German-Italian Forces led to the confinement of prisoners of war in remote bush camps. One of those prisoners was the author, Felice Benuzzi, who overloaded with monotony, figured out how to add some spice to his dull days. His camp was at the foot of Mount Kenya, so what a better challenge than climbing the mountain?

What can I say about this masterpiece that has not been said yet? I can review some of the common places, such as "if you are to read just one book about Kenya, make it be this one", or "the best book on Africa ever written" (Conrad permitting). Nonetheless, and simply joining myself to the legion of Karen's admirers, let me raise a couple of points. First, the treatment given to Africans in the book is definitely not what our standards today feel comfortable with. But do not forget that "outdated" is precisely a concept linked to date. Karen was by far in closest harmony with the feel and will of Africans than almost anyone in her days, and her contribution to the world turning their eyes to this African country would be invaluable in terms of paid advertising. She was a deeply Kenyan mzungu, deeper than the roots of her coffee plants into the African soil, and for eternity she will be the best ambassador of Kenya in the Northern Hemisphere. My second point is what I appreciate most of her work. She condensed and glossed the drama and the hope of Africa. Her whole life was a failure in practical terms: she failed in love, in business and in health, three aspects quoted in an old Spanish saying -and elsewhere- as the three pillars of life. She was more wretched than happy, and her sensitive spirit, battered even by the curse of Nazi despotism, had to go through losing what her life was meant for. Albeit, why she never returned to Kenya is probably the best proof of how she succeeded at last. The final success comes when nothing and nobody, not even the cold wind of time, can take away what was once achieved. Life is worth despite all, as long as you had something to live for and even you ephemerally touched heaven with your fingertips. And so, she achieved the most beautiful memories.

Shadows on the grass is a corollary to the most famous book of its author, Out of Africa. The first one would not be complete without the second, and the latter makes no sense without knowing the Karen that suffered for her strange loves and her ill fortune in business. In practice, both works are inseparable. In fact, the splendid movie version is actually a synthesis of both books, in addition to other sources.

By the time when her life was set to the screen by Hugh Hudson, Kuki Gallmann had already nailed her first book to the inaccessible summits of top sales and to the hearts of Africa lovers. This autobiographic work involves us in the story of an Italian woman who fell in love with Africa and made her home in the Laikipia Highlands with her husband and son. Disgrace would come along the way to spoil her new and shiny African world, but for then her spirit was tightly clung to the thorns of acacia trees and the petals of hibiscus flowers. In a smoothly tender pace and a subtle tone, she describes what is primevally the inner journey of a bittersweet life. Kuki is a strong and sensitive character, exactly as Kenya itself, and there is a very recognizably familiar scent in her narration for those who have ever longed a life amidst the bush.

"The snows of Kilimanjaro" is said to be one of Hemingway's best short stories. Now far from the unworried tone of his prior travel account in "Green hills of Africa", this fiction theme probably unveils part of his own experience, but re-shaped by time. At the minimum, his obsessions on death and corruption are fully present in the character of Harry, drinking and dying of gangrene in the bush. The title story is packed together with his third African story, "The short happy life of Francis Macomber".

Elspeth Huxley's memories could be envisioned as the missing part in "Out of Africa". Actually, Karen and Elspeth lived the same Africa at the same time, but their difference in age provided two very disimilar views. Perhaps Karen wished to be a child, since her stories were impregnated with the touch of magic that is an indispensable ingredient in life, though for her circumstances drove the other way. Elspeth was actually a child, and a truly perceptive one, playing in a new world of fantasy and joy. Left aside the sufferings and hardships of strangers in a strange land, left aside the sufferings and hardships of homelanders subdued and spoliated by foreign powers, what remains? For a child's mind, Africa is a huge playground, a spellbinding dream country where summer lasts all the year round and fairy tales are real.

This autobiographic book is a real adventure piece based on the vibrating lives of Martin and Osa Johnson, an American couple that made of their days a fascinating and restless exploration. During their expeditions through Africa, they photographed everything that could be photographed, even the summit of Kilimanjaro from the air. Their constant strive for improvement inspired a valuable research on photographic techniques. Some of the scenes they shot have remained as unmatched thrilling pieces, such as their film Simba (1928).

It is sometimes said that every stranger who has spent a part of his life in Africa feels the urgent need to write about it. Apart from wars, great disasters or unique deeds, in few other places so many people have told about how life was, in a certain place at a particular moment, as in the old colonial days in East Africa. Life then and there was deemed to be a compelling though hazardous adventure. And if there was to be one single person whose life perfectly represents all the excitement of those days, that is Beryl Markham. Ambitious, selfish and extremely promiscuous, a complex character that led a wild life. Explorer, horse trainer, a fabulous hunter and such an intrepid pilot that was risen to headlines when in 1936 became the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic from East to West. Her only book, a poetic recall of her turbulent life, is never close to a pilot's log book: sensitive and sensual, lively and thrilling, as herself was.

Patterson's chronicle is an essential reference in Kenya's 20th century history. First, because it is linked to the event that started shaping the country as it is today, the Uganda railway construction. Second, because what happened in 1898 during the building of the bridge over the Tsavo river has earned a place of honour in the anthology of true horror stories of the "dark continent". The two man-eating lions that creeped into the workers' camps in the night like evil spirits, have inspired nightmares to generations. However, do not expect an exuberant display of descriptions on the spell of African nights, not even a splendid thrilling adventure classic; the military engineer Lt. Colonel Patterson, a passionate practitioner of the scarcely fair game of hunting from a train's front, wrote little more than an aseptic news report of what, who, how, when and where. Even the movie version, "The Ghost and the Darkness" (Stephen Hopkins, 1996), starring Val Kilmer and Michael Douglas, had to incorporate a load of feeling in order to humanize the original's raw data.

The immortal author had the chance to traverse the trails of the African bush when the open plains were still the wildest hunting ground on Earth. He is said to have been a merciless hunter, but this was the time when passion in Africa was blended with the fire of guns and the blood of big game. In this work he gave account of a safari undertaken in 1933 in the Kilimanjaro region. Far from his usual fiction haunts, this is a pure travel book, but still it oozes the love for an unspoiled land, an ambience and a lifestyle, all Hemingway-style and all gone forever.

Elspeth Huxley is one of the authors that most and best has written about Kenya. On this field she has touched all genres, from fiction novels to autobiography or essay, as is the case of Nine faces of Kenya. This work is a great portrait of the country from every point of view, history, culture, nature or politics. It is an obligate reference in any study about the country, and the most direct way for any interested reader to acquire an accurate and close knowledge of Kenya’s reality.

This book is the print version of the BBC wildlife documentary series that raised the leopard Half-Tail and other Kenyan big cats to the category of world-famous movie stars. The study tells the story of one year in the life of several lions, cheetahs and leopards in Kenya's Masai Mara National Reserve.

First released in 1938, the work by Kenya's first president after independence conveys a clear and deep insight into his native Gikuyu (Kikuyu) culture. Kenyatta's thoughts have served Kenyan people, especially Gikuyus, to expose and explain their roots and social anthropology, but also has set a milestone in the comprehension of Kenya's evolution along the 20th century.

The classic by Peter Matthiessen is a travel book that accounts for a journey through East Africa, from the deserts of Sudan through Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. The author's figure gathers the qualities of a naturalist, a travel writer and an explorer, a perceptive observer of the surrounding reality with all its load of history and tradition. In a style that flees away from melodramatic paternalism or easy sentimentalism, he describes the life of tribespeople and the wildlife experience in a thorough and deep manner that lets the reader understand what is the script behind the scene and, sometimes sadly, what is the future that lies ahead.

In his thorough, dissecting and thought-provoking style, the great naturalist and explorer Peter Matthiessen leads the reader on a long trans-African journey, from the coast of Senegal and Gambia, through Ivory Coast, the deep forests of Gabon, Camerun, former Zaire, Congo, and Central African Republic, to Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. This grand expedition is primarily focused on wildlife, with glimpses at peacocks and gorillas, but with a major common thread of speech: elephants. The author shares his treks and reflections with some of the best specialists in these pachyderms, and warns us on the actual and severe danger that, should the pace of events not be reversed, the magnificent trumpetings amidst the African bush might someday subside.

Cynthia Moss is one of the world's greatest authorities in the African elephant. Part of her long-run work with pachyderms in Kenya's Amboseli National Park is reflected in this book, in which she follows the lives of several related elephant families along a thirteen-year period.

His Kenya days actually extended for over 30 years. Thesiger, a great traveller of the kind which is becoming extinct, evokes his long journeys through the deserted Northern Frontier District, tough trips on foot in which the difference between life and death relied on camels. Along his treks, the author illustrates, with his very British views on Kenyan reality and history, his wildlife encounters and the nomadic tribes' daily life.

The author, David Western, a prominent scientist and former director of the Kenya Wildlife Service, has led a life devoted to wildlife conservation and harmonization of man and nature. This book accounts for his strive and his indispensable footprint on the preservation of Africa's natural spaces.

A deep and comprehensive compendium on the behaviour of all species of African herbivores, carnivores and primates. Much beyond the scope of a field guide, but unreplaceable for professionals and for readers with deeper scientific concerns.

A Collins safari guide, covering all large animals in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.

A beautiful safari guide covering over 80 species, with data on identification, voice, habitat, habits, reproduction, food and predation. Includes some 250 wonderful photographs by the author. Better suited to enjoy at home, since the format may be a bit precious for field use.

An excellent field guide, with more than 1,100 bird species, 124 colour plates, line drawings, more than 800 distribution maps and comprehensive text. The paperback editions are more suitable for carrying on the field.

An excellent companion for your safari. Includes distance charts, city maps of Nairobi and Mombasa, enlarged maps of key tourist areas (Nairobi area and the coast), maps of national parks and reserves (Nairobi, Mount Kenya, Aberdare, Masai Mara, Meru, Kora, the Lakes area, Hell's Gate, Lake Naivasha, Lake Nakuru, Mount Elgon, Samburu, Buffalo Springs, Shaba, Marsabit, Amboseli, Tsavo, Shimba Hills) and complete road maps. The perfect complement for your Kenya guidebook and safari guides.

One of the most popular books on nature photography. John Shaw's guide is valuable for anyone approaching this discipline, right from the beginner's level. Techniques are explained in a friendly style, setting useful rules to start up.

A very useful and comprehensive guide, suitable for carrying on the field both for its format and structure. Offers a good collection of tips and examples. Professional photographers may find it a bit too basic, but it is an ideal resource from the beginner's level to the serious amateur.