Ivory, apes & peacocks - Alan Root

Alan Root is one of the great wildlife pioneers. He began his career making films for the TV series Survival, which started wildlife film-making as we know it, and is responsible for numerous groundbreaking documentaries and natural history discoveries -- from being the first person to film hippos and crocodiles underwater and the wildebeest migrating to observing that hyenas hunt. His friends and colleagues have included George and Joy Adamson and David Attenborough; he showed Dian Fossey her first mountain gorilla. His wife and long-term collaborator was Joan Root, who was tragically murdered in 2006 in retaliation for her environmental campaigning in Kenya.

In Ivory, Apes & Peacocks , Alan tells the story of his life's work, from his arrival in Kenya as a young boy (furious at having to leave behind Britain's birds) to his game-changing films, which looked at whole ecosystems (baobab trees, termite mounds) rather than the Big Five animals. Along the way we encounter Sally the pet hippo and Emily the house-proud chimp as well leopard and snake bites, ballooning adventures and amphibious cars.

In this extraordinary memoir we look at Africa's wonders through the eyes of a visionary, live through hair-raising adventure and personal tragedy and also bear witness to a natural world now largely lost from view.

ALAN ROOT was born in London in 1937 but moved to Kenya as a young boy. He dropped out of school at sixteen but soon found himself behind the camera. He married Joan Thorpe in 1961 and together they produced an array of award-winning wildlife films including Baobab: Portrait of a Tree , commissioned by David Attenborough, Safari by Balloon, The Year of the Wildebeest and Castles of Clay , which was nominated for an Oscar. Alan has won over sixty awards during his career, including an Emmy, three Lifetime Achievement Awards an OBE. He now lives on the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy in northern Kenya with his wife and two small sons.