Kicking off the 2019 Stanfords Travel Writers Festival at Destinations: The Holiday & Travel Show, John Rendall talks to Julia Wheeler about the story that captured the imagination of the world.
In 1969 Harrods department store in London sold a lion cub to John Rendall and Anthony (Ace) Bourke. For a year Christian the lion lived happily and safely with his human ‘pride’ in Chelsea. 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 millions of people on YouTube.
Listen to them talk here: