In this book, the author charts the history of the African safari from the first great expedition of 1836, as Cornwallis Harris crossed the Transvaal with an ox-wagon, to the guides of today, carrying on their tradition in the swamps of Tanzania and the forests of Ethiopia. The author tells of the men and women who made this land their home, among them Frederick Courtenay Selous, Beryl Markham, Isak Dinesen and Bror Blixen, of the clients like Theodore Roosevelt and the Prince of Wales, of the animals they stalked and of the Africans who made their expeditions possible. An environmentalist, Bartle Bull examines the ethics of hunting and the apparent dilemma of the hunter-conservationist. Against a background of tribal and colonial history, he documents developments in weapons and transport, in literature and film, in game control and conservation, and conveys the attraction that has never changed: the freedom and thrill of the African bush.