"For five years Brian Jackman and Jonathan Scott followed the Marsh pride ... recording the daily drama of life and death in Kenya's finest big-game country. In time they came to regard many of the lions as old and familiar companions: the irascible Notch and her half-sister Shadow, the misfit Mkubwa and the majestic Scar. These lions are real individuals whose lives - intimately observed and ... illustrated - offer a unique insight into the ... world of the African plain. ..."--Back cover.

An introduction to lions covers where they live, what they eat, and how they communicate, and follows the animal's development from cub to adult.

The Big Cat Man - wildlife autobiography of Jonathan Scott, holiday reads and travel literature, including the BBC's Big Cat Diary, Paramount's Wild Things, and Elephant Diaries. Also included are photographs and illustrations by Jonathan and Angela Scott, plus coverage of the Maasai Mara and Serengeti, Antarctica, and travels to India and Bhutan.

You look straight ahead. You try to breathe normally. You can smell the scent of the huge cat that is staring back. You are a cameraman. He is the King of Beasts. Your only thought is "I hope he has eaten today." Let National Geographic Explorers-in-Residence Dereck and Beverly Joubert bring you closer to the power and majesty of the regal African lion. With fewer than 25,000 wild lions now left on Earth, the authors make a passionate plea to young readers to take an active role in securing a future for these magnificent creatures.

Although the lion is not the largest, fastest or most lethal animal, its position as king of beasts has rarely been challenged. Since Palaeolithic times, lions have fascinated people, and due to its gallant mane, knowing eyes, and distinctive roar, the animal continues to beguile us today. In Lion, Deirdre Jackson paints a fresh portrait of this regal beast, drawing on folktales, the latest scientific research, and even lion-tamers’ memoirs, as well as other little-known sources to tell the story of lions famous and anonymous, familiar and surprising. Majestic, noble, brave—the lion is an animal that has occupied a great place in the human imagination, inspiring countless myths, lore and legends. As well, this creative relationship has abounded in visual culture—painted on wood and canvas, chiseled in stone, hammered in metal, and tucked between the pages of medieval manuscripts, lions have often represented divinity, dignity, and danger. In Lion Jackson summarizes the latest findings of field biologists and offers in-depth analyses of works of art, literature, oral traditions, plays, and films. She is a peerless guide on a memorable visual and cultural safari.

Almost everyone on safari hopes for a glimpse of the charismatic and elusive leopard. Chui was the first of a new generation of leopards Jonathan Scott watched and photographed in Kenya's Masai Mara Game Reserve in the 1970s and 1980s. He spent every available moment watching and photographing Chui and her cubs, Light and Dark, aware that he was only privileged to do so for as long as they chose to remain visible. His classic account tells the story of the mother leopard as a solitary hunter providing for herself and her offspring. He records encounters with baboon, hyaena and man, hazards facing the cubs as they learn to fend for themselves and periods of play and relaxation. Some years after Chui disappeared, a young female appeared, Half-Tail. Jonathan and Angela have followed her and her daughter Zawadi, stars of the BBC's Big Cat Diary, for the past twenty years, bringing the story up to date. Nobody has studied leopards more closely or known them more intimatelyJonathan says: 'The update is based on our work with Half-Tail and Zawadi from both the pictures and text perspective - Angie worked with us on Big Cat Diary as the stills photographer from 1996 and before that we both worked with Half-Tail from the time she first appeared around Leopard Gorge and Fig Tree Ridge - our kids grew up on safari with Half-Tail and Zawadi as stars of their own Mara adventures.'

Former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams offers fascinating insight into The Chronicles of Narnia, the popular series of novels by one of the most influential Christian authors of the modern era, C. S. Lewis. Lewis once referred to certain kinds of book as a "mouthwash for the imagination." This is what he attempted to provide in the Narnia stories, argues Williams: an unfamiliar world in which we could rinse out what is stale in our thinking about Christianity--"which is almost everything," says Williams--and rediscover what it might mean to meet the holy. Indeed, Lewis's great achievement in the Narnia books is just that-he enables readers to encounter the Christian story "as if for the first time." How does Lewis makes fresh and strange the familiar themes of Christian doctrine? Williams points out that, for one, Narnia itself is a strange place: a parallel universe, if you like. There is no "church" in Narnia, no religion even. The interaction between Aslan as a "divine" figure and the inhabitants of this world is something that is worked out in the routines of life itself. Moreover, we are made to see humanity in a fresh perspective, the pride or arrogance of the human spirit is chastened by the revelation that, in Narnia, you may be on precisely the same spiritual level as a badger or a mouse. It is through these imaginative dislocations that Lewis is able to communicate--to a world that thinks it knows what faith is--the character, the feel, of a real experience of surrender in the face of absolute incarnate love. This lucid, learned, humane, and beautifully written book opens a new window onto Lewis's beloved stories, revealing the moral wisdom and passionate faith beneath their perennial appeal.

Adorably cute and amazingly fast, the cheetah is a perennial favorite among kids. This National Geographic Reader will delight kids with beautiful photographs and mind-boggling facts about this majestic and mysterious cat. Did you know a cheetah can go from 0 to 60 mph in less than 3 seconds? True to the National Geographic Kids’ style and trusted reputation, snack size bites of information provide easily digestible learning that fulfills both the reader’s curiosity and sense of achievement. National Geographic supports K-12 educators with ELA Common Core Resources. Visit www.natgeoed.org/commoncore for more information.

The story that captured the imagination of the world... In 1969 Harrods department store in London sold a three month old lion cub to two young Australians, John Rendall and Anthony (Ace) Bourke. They called him Christian. 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. This brand new book from Bradt, collects Derek Cattani's never-before-seen pictures of Christian and updates the story to the present day, including the story of their YouTube sensation and a chapter on the murder of George Adamson. 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.

How writer Simon Barnes rewilded the marshland next to his garden to attract new species and to bring inspiration to his family