The story you are about to read did not begin yesterday. And to understand and appreciate the meaning and charm of Gareth Patterson’s book, you need to plunge into the distant past. So...One fine February day in 1956, Department of Nature Conservation and Tourism inspector George Adamson, during a trip to northern Kenya, in self-defense, was forced to shoot a lioness who rushed at him. A few steps from the scene of the incident, he found the lair of this lioness in a rock crevice (this is what explained her aggressiveness!) with three helpless cubs who had just received their sight. Being a true animal lover, George took the orphaned babies and brought them to his camp, where he placed them in the care of his wife, later world famous Joy Adamson.