Why a Booktrail?
1969: Harrods department store in London sold a three month old lion cub to two young Australians
A Lion Called Christian
What you need to know before your trail
In 2008, a YouTube clip became an internet phenomenon. It showed the emotional reunion of two young men and their pet lion, Christian, after they had left him in Africa to be introduced into his rightful home in the wild.
Anthony ‘Ace’ Bourke and John Rendall visited London from Australia in 1969 and bought a boisterous lion cub in Harrods. But Christian soon grew from cuddly cub to King of the Kings Road in London, and 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.
Locations
Reset- England - London
- A: Harrods
- B: Kings Road - Worlds End
- East Africa - Kenya
- C: Kora National Reserve
Travel Guide
Travel with a lion from Harrods, London to Kenya
For a year Christian lived happily and safely with John and Ace and his human ‘pride’, initially in the World’s End on the King’s Road in Chelsea, where Derek Cattani first began photographing him. When Christian outgrew his London environment he was entrusted to the care of George Adamson in Kenya, who with his wife Joy, had successfully rehabilitated their lioness Elsa, the subject of Joy’s Book Born Free.
A year after Christian had been living in the wild John and Ace returned to Kenya to try and find him. The film clip of their emotional reunion has now been viewed by over 100 million people on YouTube. In 1973 Christian disappeared into the wild forever. George Adamson had uniquely rehabilitated a 5th generation zoo-bred lion. John and Ace’s first book about Christian was a million seller in the 1970s, and enjoyed a huge resurgence of interest after their YouTube clip went viral in 2006.
When John and Ace took Christian to Kenya in 1970 there were an estimated 300,00 lions in Africa. Today there are fewer than 25,000.
BookTrail Boarding Pass: Christian The Lion: A Lion Called Christian
Destination: London, Kenya Author/guide: Anthony Bourke and John Rendall Departure Time: 1969 onwards
Back to ResultsWhere Next?
