Event 36

For over five decades, Brian Jackman has reported from the front lines of African wildlife conservation. In Lion Song, Britain’s foremost safari writer reflects on a lifetime tracking the continent’s megafauna, from his first encounter with a roaring lion in the Maasai Mara to the famous Marsh Lions, which he documented for the BBC’s Big Cat Diary. Blending vivid field reporting with reverence for the natural world, Jackman chronicles Africa’s changing wilderness through meetings with legendary naturalists like George Adamson and firsthand accounts of the war against poaching. Part memoir and part call to action, this narrative charts the retreat of wild spaces while celebrating a continent where, for now at least, the rulers of the savanna are still free to greet the dawn. Chaired by Sam Rose.