A Lion Called Christian by Anthony Bourke & John Rendall

This book start with Anthony ‘Ace’ Bourke and John Rendall visited London from Australia in 1969 and brought a boisterous lion cub in Harrods. But Christian soon grew from cuddly cub to King of the Kings Road. The only way to avoid him being incarcerated in a zoo was to place him under the expert care of George Adamson in Kenya.

Ace and John did not return to see their lion for a year. After a year, they plan to visit Christian. Could a year apart have changed their relationship?

To understand more about this story, I had included a video from You Tube. After watch this video, I feel touching with the relationship of 2 men and 1 lion.

The table had been sold, and now there were several deep scratches on it. We telephoned the woman who had bought it to apologize. ‘Don’t worry,’ she said. ‘I only came into the shop to see Christian; the table was an after thought. Please don’t worry about the scratches. They will remind me of that beautiful lion.’

On 12 August 1970, Christian celebrated his first birthday. Unity made him a birthday cake of minced meat. There was one candle on top, and before Christian ate it and the cake, we made a wish that he would soon be in Kenya.

Suddenly George heard cries from the same direction, and grabbing his gun ran out to see his African assistant Stanley in Boy’s jaw. George shouted at Boy, who dropped Stanley. George shot Boy dead and he rushed to Stanley’s aid, but the assistant died almost immediately.

Inside view of "A Lion Called Christian"