Adventurer’s Paradise by Alastair Scobie lands on the shelves of my shop.
The Travel Book Club, 1955, Hardback in dust wrapper.
Illustrated by way of: Black & White Photographs; Maps [1];
From the cover: Alastair Scobie spends his time in the wilder parts of East Africa looking for trouble principally wild-animal trouble. With a film camera and gun he wanders over the long plains and steep passes of Northern Kenya, ankle deep in volcanic dust, or through gorilla and rhino tunnels, forced passages in the massed bamboo forests of the Mountains of the Moon on the edge of the Congo. Wherever he goes he seeks sensation for the entertainment of the millions who take their thrills vicariously through the medium of cinema or television.
His book is packed with stories of his adventures and of the fantastic characters, white and black, in whose company he has found a wild and esoteric pleasure. Some of them may be crazy, some utterly degenerate, some plain savage, but the hilarious tales of their primitive lives, packed helter-skelter between the thrills of his more frightening moments in putting on film the dangers of the wild, make a book which cannot fail to keep any armchair-traveller awake into the small hours.
There have been many books of big-game hunting, but your big-game hunter does not go on safari asking for trouble ; he would much rather shoot his lion or rhino from a safe distance than wait for it to come full tilt at him face to face. For the free-lance movie cameraman the goal is just that. He can only sell action close-up action and if the camera doesnt get out from under quickly enough that merely means another camera and perhaps another cameraman. Alastair Scobie has so far managed to get out from under in the nick of time.
Very Good in Good Dust Wrapper. Unlaminated dust wrapper a little edgeworn and faded with light fraying to the spine ends and corners. Tanning to the blanks. Text complete, clean and tight otherwise.
Blue boards with Black titling to the Spine. 249 pages. Index. 8½” x 5½”.
Of course, if you don’t like this one there are plenty more available here!
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